EurekAlert! News by Subject: Agriculture - News by Subject: Agriculture

Agriculture

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 11-Sep-2025 16:11 ET (11-Sep-2025 20:11 GMT/UTC)

23-Jul-2025

Can certain fungi boost the micronutrient content of bread wheat?

New research in Plants, People, Planet indicates that bread wheat’s micronutrient content can be increased by cultivating it with a specific type of fungus.

Journal: Plants People Planet

22-Jul-2025

Sustainability Accelerator selects 41 new projects with potential for rapid scale-up

Stanford University
Grant and Award Announcement

The latest awards enable development and implementation of cross-disciplinary projects tackling real-world sustainability challenges in food and agriculture, industry, water, electricity, and biology.

22-Jul-2025

320 million trees are killed by lightning each year — Considerable biomass loss

Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lightning has a greater impact on forests than previously thought. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed new model calculations that, for the first time, estimate the global influence of lightning on forest ecosystems. According to their findings, an estimated 320 million trees die each year due to lightning strikes. Tree losses caused by direct lightning-ignited wildfires are not included in these figures. In the future, lightning-induced tree mortality could rise due to an increase in flash frequency.

Journal: Global Change Biology
Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

22-Jul-2025

The Holobiont Revolution: How wheat is becoming more climate-resilient through nature-based plant breeding and machine learning

University of Vienna
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Nitrogen fertilizers used in agriculture contribute significantly to global warming. A new breeding concept, specifically for wheat, could help reduce nitrogen fertilization. This holobiont principle places the complex interactions between plants and soil microbiomes at the center of plant breeding. In combination with machine learning, this could lead to the use of new wheat varieties, as well as other crops, that are more resilient to climate change and contribute to soil health. Two recent studies led by Wolfram Weckwerth from the University of Vienna have been published in the journals Plant Biotechnology and Trends in Plant Science.

Journal: Trends in Plant Science

22-Jul-2025

Revolutionizing hydrogen fluoride synthesis: Scalable and safer generation

Shibaura Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Hydrogen fluoride (HF) is the simplest and cheapest fluorinating reagent available, but its volatility and toxicity limit its practical use. Now, researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, introduce a new approach for the generation of HF, which is both safe and scalable. Using the cation exchange method between Potassium fluoride (KF) and Amberlyst 15DRY, they generated HF and converted it to amine-3HF complexes, thereby expanding the range of accessible complexes for fluorination reactions.

Journal: Chemistry - A European Journal

22-Jul-2025

Clearing rainforest for cattle farming is far worse for nature than previously thought, finds landmark bird survey

University of Cambridge
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the largest ever survey of rainforest birdlife, scientists have discovered that deforestation to create pastureland in Colombia is causing around 60% more damage to biodiversity than previously estimated.

Journal: Nature Ecology & Evolution
Funder: Research Council of Norway, Natural Environment Research Council

22-Jul-2025

New research: Deforestation rates on recognized Afro-descendant lands in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname are as much as 55% lower than the norm

Conservation International
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Afro-descendant peoples in four Amazon countries show remarkable achievements in environmental stewardship, according to new research from Conservation International.

Journal: Nature Communications