In the course of their evolution, the angiosperms have radiated into most known plant forms and life histories. Their adaptation to a recently created habitat, the crop field, produced a novel form: the plant that allocates an unprecedented 30-60% of its net productivity to sexual structures. Long-lived trees, shrubs and vines of this form evolved, as did annual herbs. Perennial herb forms with...

Annual row cropping systems converted to perennial bioenergy crops tend to accrue soil C, likely a function of increased root production and decreased frequency of tillage; however, very little is known about the mechanisms governing the accrual and stability of this additional soil C. To address this uncertainty, we assessed the formation and stability of aggregates and soil organic C (SOC) po...

The world’s oldest ecosystems are found in the tropics. They are diverse, highly evolved, but barely understood. Diseases that impact crops in these regions can be significant contraints to production, especially when they occur in lowland environments with high rainfall and uniform, warm temperatures; respites from disease pressure there are often infrequent. Difficulties in managing diseases ...

The grain aphid (Sitobion avenae F.) is one of the most economically important cereal pests in Europe, causing both direct feeding damage (especially on ears) and indirect virus transmission. For this reason, systematic monitoring its intensity crops it causes crucial protection winter wheat other plants order to determine current level risk. summary observations illustrated changing occurrence...

Shifting cultivation remains an important land system in many tropical landscapes, but transitions away from shifting are increasingly common. So far, our knowledge on the social–economic and environmental drivers consequences of such is incomplete, focusing certain transitions, drivers, or regions. Here, we use archetype approach, validated through systematically identified literature, to desc...

Problems associated with annual grain agriculture, such as soil erosion and water and air pollution, indicate that reliance on annual grain production is a fundamental problem of current agricultural practice (23). Annual plant roots are less efficient micromanagers of water, soil, and soil nutrients than their perennial counterparts, resulting in nutrient and pesticide contamination of water s...

By 2050, Africa's population is projected to exceed 2 billion. Africa will have to increase food production more than 50% in the coming 50 years to meet the nutritional requirements of its growing population. Nowhere is the need to increase agricultural productivity more pertinent than in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, where it is currently static or declining. Optimal pest management will be esse...

Bees pollinate most of the world's wild plant species and provide economically valuable pollination services to crops; yet knowledge of bee conservation biology lags far behind other taxa such as vertebrates and plants. There are few long-term data on bee populations, which makes their conservation status difficult to assess. The best-studied groups are the genus Bombus (the bumble bees), and b...

BACKGROUND Studies of perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata Benth.) suggest its hay and haylage have greater levels of rumen undegraded protein (RUP) than other legume forages such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Greater RUP can result in more efficient nitrogen utilization by ruminant animals with positive economic and environmental effects. We sought to determine whether, like red clover (Trifo...