Nutrients News and Research

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Harvesting vegetation on riparian buffers minimally impacts water quality

Allowing farmers to harvest vegetation from their riparian buffers will not significantly impede the ability of those streamside tracts to protect water quality by capturing nutrients and sediment -- and it will boost farmers' willingness to establish buffers.

5 Oct 2020

Corals' response to climate change could depend on iron

How well corals respond to climate change could depend in part on the already scarce amount of iron available in their environment, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.

1 Oct 2020

Study warns the negative effects of ocean warming and acidification on planktonic communities

A new study led by researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona warns that the negative effects of rapid ocean warming on planktonic communities will be exacerbated by ocean acidification.

1 Oct 2020

Rapeseed could replace soy as best plant-based source of protein for humans

Rapeseed has the potential to replace soy as the best plant-based source of protein for humans. In a current study, nutrition scientists at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), found that rapeseed protein consumption has comparable beneficial effects on human metabolism as soy protein.

1 Oct 2020

Biodiversity increases plant decomposition rate

The afterlife of plant matter plays a significant role in ecosystems, as a key processor and provider of key nutrients.

29 Sep 2020

Researchers analyze individual cells to build an atlas of the human heart

Scientists have created a cellular and molecular map of the healthy human heart, to understand how this vital organ functions, and to shed light on what goes wrong in cardiovascular disease.

25 Sep 2020

Study shows how climate change may affect different ecosystems

To understand how climate change may affect different ecosystems, 27 researchers from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana and Puerto Rico, among other countries, conducted experiments in seven different locations involving the aquatic environment in the tank (centrally-located water-holding cup) of bromeliads, a habitat for insect larvae and other small organisms.

24 Sep 2020

Front of package nutrition labels linked with improved nutritional content

A new study analyzing 16 years of data on tens of thousands of products finds that the adoption of nutrition data on "front of package" (FOP) labels is associated with improved nutritional content of those foods and their competitors.

24 Sep 2020

Scientists uncover new pathway to protect plants from fungal infection

Widespread fungal disease in plants can be controlled with a commercially available chemical that has been primarily used in medicine until now. This discovery was made by scientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of the State of Paraná in Brazil.

23 Sep 2020

Water quality database helps scientists to monitor and manage health of freshwater lakes

Although less than one per cent of all water in the world is freshwater, it is what we drink and use for agriculture. In other words, it's vital to human survival. York University researchers have just created a publicly available water quality database for close to 12,000 freshwater lakes globally - almost half of the world's freshwater supply - that will help scientists monitor and manage the health of these lakes.

From York University 23 Sep 2020

Human genetics: New insights into our own biology

Who are we? Where did we come from? How did we get here? Throughout the ages, humans have sought answers to these questions, pursuing wisdom through religion, philosophy, and eventually science.

21 Sep 2020

Artificial upwelling could help mitigate the thermal stress on corals

The risk of severe coral bleaching--a condition in which corals lose their symbiotic algae, called zooxanthellae--is five times more frequent today than it was forty years ago.

17 Sep 2020

Research can help farmers select the best cover crops to protect the soil

Farmers around the world are keen to protect their most important asset: their soil. The soil supports and enriches their crops. But the relatively thin layer of topsoil can readily wash away into streams, carrying unwanted nutrients with it.

17 Sep 2020

Scientists investigate how soils are affected by deforestation in the tropics

Tropical forest soils play a crucial role in providing vital ecosystem functions. They provide nutrients for plants, store carbon and regulate greenhouse gases, as well as storing and filtering water, and protection against erosion.

17 Sep 2020

Viruses provide a "coup de grace" when ocean algae are stressed and dying

Scientists have long believed that ocean viruses always quickly kill algae, but Rutgers-led research shows they live in harmony with algae and viruses provide a "coup de grace" only when blooms of algae are already stressed and dying.

From Rutgers University 15 Sep 2020

Protein aggregation reduces elasticity of blood vessels during aging

Deposits of a protein called "Medin", which manifest in virtually all older adults, reduce the elasticity of blood vessels during aging and hence may be a risk factor for vascular dementia.

10 Sep 2020

New findings overturn the understanding of cholesterol’s impact on cell membranes

For more than a decade, scientists have accepted that cholesterol - a key component of cell membranes - did not uniformly affect membranes of different types.

9 Sep 2020

Changing what we eat could offset years of climate-warming emissions

Plant protein foods can provide vital nutrients using a small fraction of the land required to produce meat and dairy.

8 Sep 2020

Researchers discover link between defensive responses in plants and crop parasite

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have discovered a link between defensive responses in plants and the beautiful but devastating crop parasite witchweed.

3 Sep 2020