Tag: agriculture

Behind the paper

Laura Riggi: Strip cropping improves plant defenses against herbivorous insects via the soil  

In this post Laura Riggi from University of Wageningen (Netherlands) presents her work ‘Strip-cropping legacy enhances potato plant defence responses to aphids via soil-mediated mechanisms’. She talks about the importance of diversity for agriculture, discusses the connections between above- and belowground organisms, and shares how her love for arthropods guided her to made agriculture more sustainable.   About the research Intensive agriculture focuses on growing a … Continue reading Laura Riggi: Strip cropping improves plant defenses against herbivorous insects via the soil  

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Behind the paper

Pedro Gundel: plant-fungi symbiosis and the impact of host fitness and vertical transmission efficiency

In our new post Pedro Gundel, researcher at University of Talca (Chile) presents his work ‘Temporal host–symbiont dynamics in community contexts: Impact of host fitness and vertical transmission efficiency on symbiosis prevalence’. He shows how symbiotic species transmit between generations, discusses the complexity of ecological processes and shares the long path that paved the way to this work.  About the paper A major topic in … Continue reading Pedro Gundel: plant-fungi symbiosis and the impact of host fitness and vertical transmission efficiency

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Postcards From The Field

Clara Castellano—Understanding the Impact of Rural Abandonment on Ecological Processes in Mediterranean Ecosystems

In this blog post, Clara Castellano—from the Department of Agrarian and Environmental Science at the University of Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain—discusses working on the ARBIO Project in the Middle Ebro River Valley, the joys of fieldwork, and what the future holds. Profile I’m interested in ecology in general, and specifically in nature conservation and ecological restoration. Throughout my scientific career, I have studied ecosystem services (i.e., … Continue reading Clara Castellano—Understanding the Impact of Rural Abandonment on Ecological Processes in Mediterranean Ecosystems

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