Agroforestry systems, which integrate trees and shrubs into farming, are vital to achieving sustainable cocoa production in West Africa where 70 percent of the world cocoa is produced. Climate change induced drought means that it is ever more critical to adapt farming practices and find new approaches. Research led by scientists from the University of Göttingen sheds light on a promising new approach to improve climate resilience in cocoa agroforestry across West Africa; this focuses on the critical role of leaf “phenology” – the seasonal changes in leaf cycles – in trees providing shade in managing climate impacts. The study discovered that the seasonal leaf cycles of shade trees can significantly influence the productivity of cocoa agroforestry systems as well as their resilience to global environmental change. The results were published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

Using satellite imagery, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers comprehensively analyzed drought dynamics over five years to reveal short and long-term climate trends in Arkansas. The Delta, a regional powerhouse for Arkansas agriculture built by river flows, is showing a trend of increasing droughts.

Hamdi Zurqani, an assistant professor of geospatial science for the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Arkansas Forest Resources Center at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, developed the Arkansas Vegetation Drought Explorer v.2.0 as part of a drought mapping study. The user-friendly web app gives users access to maps showing drought levels in Arkansas by county, year and month.

A new comprehensive survey by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology has highlighted an urgent need to enable more farmers and contractors to revive England’s hedgerows to meet national restoration targets. While agri-environment schemes (AES) have improved the condition of these iconic landscape features, the overall length of hedgerows remains unchanged, says the report for Natural England.

A cutting-edge study has unveiled the genetic mechanisms that shape the vibrant purple leaves of tea plants, renowned for their health-enhancing anthocyanins.

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid  (UC3M) is part of the European scientific project SUSTAIN-6G, which will assess and explore sustainable technologies, methods, and use cases for 6G communications technology, addressing environmental, economic, and social needs. This R&D consortium, coordinated by Nokia, will work on solutions for three specific areas of sustainable development: smart grids, e-health and telemedicine, and agriculture.

The tropical coastlines of Southeast Asia are home to some of the most important and biodiverse marine ecosystems on the planet. But as well as being essential to communities along these coastlines, fishing and tourism were found - in new research conducted by an international study team - to be among the most damaging from an environmental perspective

Fungal contamination of cereal grains poses a substantial threat to food security and public health while causing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses annually. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign evaluated far-ultraviolet C (far-UVC) light as a safe way to alleviate fungal contamination of corn and wheat and found this technology to be effective.