Soil science: How AI could help scientists secure a vital global resource
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Jun-2026 08:15 ET (19-Jun-2026 12:15 GMT/UTC)
A study led by researchers from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Malaga has revealed how organic farming –the one that uses natural substances and processes, avoiding the use of synthetic chemicals– can, in the long term, help crops become more resistant to drought in a natural way.
A new study of the largest dam removal project in United States history on the Klamath River in Oregon and California is offering new insight into a long-running water conflict by finding that farmers and conservation groups share priorities that may help guide decision-making on future river restoration projects.
Due to human development and climate change, tidal wetland areas have been shrinking globally. A new study using 40 years of satellite data shows that this loss has been accelerating in the U.S. and that this acceleration is being increasingly driven by extreme weather events.
This work was led by Xiucheng Yang, a former UConn postdoctoral researcher and current senior research fellow at the University of Victoria, and Zhe Zhu, an associate professor and director of Global Environmental Remote Sensing (GERS) Laboratory in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR). The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers developed an automated cold plasma and bubble system for dual modality function of treating food-industry wastewater and transforming into nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer for hydroponic farming. This automated electrified flow system runs on a low energy, reduced wastewater organic load while simultaneously improving plant growth, offering a scalable and promising route toward sustainable agriculture and water reuse.