News

Beneficial fungi induce lateral root development via a generic mechanismResearch by Crop Science Centre scientists’ sheds light on the relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and lateral root development in angiosperms.Professor Uta Paszkowski, an author of this research, said “This is a significant clarification of the molecular mechanis…

New evidence suggests that REDD+ projects in the tropics have helped reduce deforestation, particularly in regions of rapid land use changeTropical deforestation and degradation are significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Projects aimed at Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in exchange for carb…

The hologenome theory of Susceptibility-gene discovery – an innovative way to boost disease resistance in crop plants Scientists at the Crop Science Centre, a joint initiative of the Department of Plant Sciences and the National Institute for Agricultural Botany, in collaboration with partners around the world and principally the University of Cal…

A recent study by Dr Edmund Tanner and colleagues shows that damage caused to forests by hurricanes in Jamaica enables lower-altitude, warmer-temperature-loving species to fill the gaps, and helps the forest adapt to the rising temperatures that result from climate change.The team concluded that hurricanes speed up the rate of forest ‘thermophilisa…

DNA techniques reveal new and unusual tulip species - Tulipa toktogulica – from KyrgyzstanTaxonomists in the Department of Plant Sciences and the University Botanic Garden, in partnership with colleagues from the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic in Kyrgyzstan, have discovered a new and unusual tulip species from the mountainous J…

New grants to boost understanding of how pathogens exploit their plant hosts and how plants resist attackProfessor John Carr and colleagues in the Plant Virology and Molecular Plant Pathology Group at the Department of Plant Sciences have been awarded new grants from the Leverhulme Trust and UKRI’s Biology and Biotechnology Research Council to enha…

A new, hands-off approach to monitoring biodiversity is saving time and money, and helping to identify sites where intervention is most needed. Close your eyes and imagine the sounds on a busy city street. Now imagine the sounds in a forest. Even if you can’t identify specific noises in the mix, the overall sound has clearly changed.Tracking change…

Planting trees and suppressing wildfires does not necessarily maximise the carbon storage of natural ecosystems. A new study, published by Dr Adam Pellegrini, Head of the Department's Disturbance Ecology and Ecosystem Function Group, has found that prescribed burning can actually lock in or increase carbon in the soils of temperate forests, savanna…