Outputs (518)

Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils (2025)
Journal Article
Raza, S., Pandey, B. K., Hawkesford, M. J., Griffiths, S., Bennett, M. J., & Mooney, S. J. (2025). Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils. Nature Plants, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-01977-z

Modern crop breeding and seed certification agencies ignore the known spatial heterogeneity of soils and develop cultivars to thrive in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ soil environment. Neglecting the evolving dynamics of soils substantially undermines the cap... Read More about Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils.

Variation in suppression of black‐grass by modern and ancestral cereal root exudates (2025)
Journal Article
Hickman, D. T., Withall, D. M., Caulfield, J. C., Comont, D., Ritz, K., Neve, P., Rasmussen, A., & Birkett, M. A. (2025). Variation in suppression of black‐grass by modern and ancestral cereal root exudates. Plant Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.70010

This study aimed to determine the variability of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum), ancestral diploid wheat (T. monococcum) and rye (Secale cereale) root exudate potential to inhibit the arable weed black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides), in relation... Read More about Variation in suppression of black‐grass by modern and ancestral cereal root exudates.

Field plants strategically regulate water uptake from different soil depths by spatiotemporally adjusting their radial root hydraulic conductivity (2025)
Journal Article
Rickard, W., Hossain, I., Zhang, X., Cooper, H. V., Mooney, S. J., Hawkesford, M. J., & Whalley, W. R. (2025). Field plants strategically regulate water uptake from different soil depths by spatiotemporally adjusting their radial root hydraulic conductivity. New Phytologist, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70013

Plants modify their root hydraulics to maintain water status and strategically use soil water, but how they achieve this in the field conditions remains elusive.
We developed a method to measure and calculate daily root water uptake, root water pote... Read More about Field plants strategically regulate water uptake from different soil depths by spatiotemporally adjusting their radial root hydraulic conductivity.

Earth observation reveals reduced winter wheat growth and the importance of plant available water during drought (2025)
Journal Article
Sjulgård, H., Graf, L. V., Colombi, T., Hirte, J., Keller, T., & Aasen, H. (2025). Earth observation reveals reduced winter wheat growth and the importance of plant available water during drought. Biogeosciences, 22(5), 1341-1354. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1341-2025

Drought poses increasing challenges to global food production. Knowledge about the influence of drought on crop development and the role of soil properties for crop drought severity is important in drought risk analysis and for mitigating drought imp... Read More about Earth observation reveals reduced winter wheat growth and the importance of plant available water during drought.

Biowaste to biochar: a techno-economic and life cycle assessment of biochar production from food-waste digestate and its agricultural field application (2025)
Journal Article
Gamaralalage, D., Rodgers, S., Gill, A., Meredith, W., Bott, T., West, H., Alce, J., Snape, C., & McKechnie, J. (2025). Biowaste to biochar: a techno-economic and life cycle assessment of biochar production from food-waste digestate and its agricultural field application. Biochar, 7(1), Article 50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-025-00456-0

Biochar has high potential for long-term atmospheric carbon storage in terrestrial environments, contributing to meeting the UK and global greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This study investigates the greenhouse gas emissions and techno-econ... Read More about Biowaste to biochar: a techno-economic and life cycle assessment of biochar production from food-waste digestate and its agricultural field application.

StomaGAN: Improving image-based analysis of stomata through Generative Adversarial Networks (2025)
Journal Article
Gibbs, J. A., & Gibbs, A. J. (2025). StomaGAN: Improving image-based analysis of stomata through Generative Adversarial Networks. in silico Plants, https://doi.org/10.1093/insilicoplants/diaf002

Stomata regulate gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere, but analysing their morphology is challenging due to anatomical variability and artifacts during image acquisition. Deep learning (DL) can address these challenges but often requires la... Read More about StomaGAN: Improving image-based analysis of stomata through Generative Adversarial Networks.

The influence of local and regional sources on concentrations of fine particulate matter in Delhi (2025)
Journal Article
Srivastava, D., Alam, M. S., Rooney, D. J., Crilley, L. R., Kramer, L., Saksakulkrai, S., Dhawan, S., Khare, M., Shivan, Gadi, R., Kumar, P., Hama, S., Harrison, R. M., Shi, Z., & Bloss, W. J. (2025). The influence of local and regional sources on concentrations of fine particulate matter in Delhi. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 16(7), Article 102476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2025.102476

Delhi is one of the world's most polluted cities, and hence pollution control is a very high priority. A key aspect of a cost-effective strategy is to differentiate emissions from local sources from pollution arising from regional transport. Detailed... Read More about The influence of local and regional sources on concentrations of fine particulate matter in Delhi.

Unraveling mechanisms of N₂O emissions and nitrogen cycling: The role of biochar C:N ratios in loamy and sandy soils (2025)
Journal Article
Jaffar, M. T., Ahmed, M., Shi, R., Jiang, S., Kong, Z., Girkin, N., Zhang, J., & Huo, H. (2025). Unraveling mechanisms of N₂O emissions and nitrogen cycling: The role of biochar C:N ratios in loamy and sandy soils. Applied Soil Ecology, 207, Article 105950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.105950

The influence of biochar on N cycle is well-known, but specific biological and chemical mechanisms under biochar with different C:N ratios and soil types, remain inadequately unclear. This study aimed to explore the changes in N cycle after adding N-... Read More about Unraveling mechanisms of N₂O emissions and nitrogen cycling: The role of biochar C:N ratios in loamy and sandy soils.

Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm (2025)
Journal Article
Kieber, J., Zheng, Z., Schnable, P. S., Dinneny, J. R., Banda, J., Sturrock, C. J., Pandey, B. K., Bennett, M., Scharwies, J. D., Clarke, T., Dinneny, A., Birkeland, S., Veltman, M. A., Torres-Martínez, H. H., Viana, W. G., & Khare, R. (2025). Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm. Science, 387(6734), 666-673. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads5999

Plants grow complex root systems to extract unevenly distributed resources from soils. Spatial differences in soil moisture are perceived by root tips, leading to the patterning of new root branches toward available water in a process called hydropat... Read More about Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm.

Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits (2025)
Preprint / Working Paper
Nakombo-Gbassault, P., Arenas, S., Affortit, P., Faye, A., Flis, P., Sine, B., Moukouanga, D., Gantet, P., Kosh Komba, E., Kane, N., Bennett, M., Wells, D., Cubry, P., Bailey, E., Grondin, A., Vigouroux, Y., & Laplaze, L. Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) thrives in arid and nutrient-poor environments, establishing its role as a crucial cereal crop for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its remarkable adaptability, its yields remain below genetic potential,... Read More about Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits.