Recent Posts

Biofuel blending reduces particle emissions from aircraft engines at cruise conditions ($)

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Aircraft engines release CO2 into the atmosphere, but particles produced from aircraft emissions can also affect climate through aerosol production that leads to cloud formation. Moore et al. examined how incorporating plant-based biofuels (Camelina oil) affected the production of aerosols. They found…

Review: Insights into grassland ecosystem responses to global environmental change – NutNet ($)

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Environmental changes affect the biodiversity (variety of life forms) and productivity (conversion of sunlight energy and carbon into plant biomass) of ecological communities. The collaborative Nutrient Network (NutNet) was created 10 years ago with the goal of synthesizing studies of ecosystem environmental…

Review: Novel consequences of bird pollination on plant mating

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Pollination is an important evolutionary process as it allows gene flow. If pollen travels long distances, the likelihood of inbreeding is reduced and fitness may be increased. Pollen dispersal can be assisted by pollinators, and although most plants are pollinated by insects, birds are also important…

Review: Can modern agriculture be sustainable? Perennial polyculture holds promise

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Most of our major food crops are annuals, started from seed each year and fully harvested to collect the seeds at the end of their short growing season. By contrast, perennial crops are longer lived, and only partially harvested, so their biomass can increase from year to year. The larger root system…

Long-term trends in the intensity and relative toxicity of herbicide use

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“Weeds are a fact of life for farmers around the world,” writes Kniss in this analysis of herbicide-use trends. He stresses the limitation of reports that measure only the weight of herbicides used, as there is tremendous variation in the toxicity of different herbicides. He shows that although herbicide…

Review: Ancient plant DNA in lake sediments

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Fossils have been extremely useful in efforts to reconstruct the past, but recently the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) has taken off.  Parducci et al. describe the value of lake sediments as sources of ancient DNA from which to gain insights into the plant populations of ancient times. Lakes are found…

Covariation and phenotypic integration in chemical communication displays ($)

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Humans aren’t very sophisticated at reading chemical communication cues. Towards deciphering the information content of complex chemical mixtures produced by plants and animals, Junker et al. ask to what extent chemical communication displays (CCDs) are replicated between samples and individuals. The…

Canopy near-infrared reflectance and terrestrial photosynthesis

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A model is only as good as the data that go into it (garbage in, garbage out), so any effort to improve remote sensing data will contribute to better global models. Badgley et al. describe a new parameter, near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRV), that more accurately quantifies photosynthesis…

Review: Many shades of gray – The context-dependent performance of organic agriculture

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“The benefits of organic agriculture are widely debated. Although some promote it as a solution to our sustainable food security challenges, others condemn it as a backward and romanticized version of agriculture that would lead to hunger and environmental devastation.” Seufert and Ramankutty address…