Why Some Get Dirty Underwear to Help the Land Agriculture News
Armidale, Australia – What can white cotton underwear tell you about the health of your farm or garden soil? It’s a lot, it gives.
Hundreds of people – from farmers to school children – are burying cotton underwear in back gardens as part of a scientific science project to bury eight weeks later as part of the Soil Your Undies Challenge, which began before expanding abroad in the United States. boost Australian.
Cotton is made up of a sugar called cellulose, making it a delicious snack for microbes and the army of other small decomposers that live in the soil. The state of the recovery of the clothing will indicate the health of the microbiome. If there is not much left of the cloth, the earth is full of health and activity. If it is mostly intact, work is needed to improve the situation.
UK researchers find miscanthus can grow well on poorer farm land : Biofuels Digest biofuelsdigest.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from biofuelsdigest.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With very little known about its productivity in flooded and moisture-saturated soil conditions, researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich wanted to understand the differences in water-stress tolerance among Miscanthus species to guide genomics-assisted crop breeding.
The research team – along with collaborators at TEAGASC, The Agriculture and Food Development Authority in the Republic of Ireland, and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences in Wales – analysed various Miscanthus genotypes to identify traits that provided insight into gene adaptation and regulation during water stress. They found specific genes that play key roles in response to water stress across different Miscanthus species, and saw consistencies with functional biological processes that are critical during the survival of drought stress in other organisms.
(Earlham Institute) Some grasses are a sustainable energy source that could be a driving force towards achieving net zero carbon emissions, according to new research that demonstrates their resilience to harsh growing environments. The Miscanthus genus of grasses, commonly used to add movement and texture to gardens, could quickly become the first choice for biofuel production. A new study shows these grasses can be grown in lower agricultural grade conditions – such as marginal land – due to their remarkable resilience and photosynthetic capacity at low temperatures.
Miscanthus is a promising biofuel thanks to its high biomass yield and low input requirements, which means it can adapt to a wide range of climate zones and land types. It is seen as a viable commercial option for farmers but yields can come under threat from insufficient or excessive water supply, such as increasing winter floods or summer heat waves.