Factors such as sunlight and stage-specific nutrient application determine crop success in urban agriculture, far beyond fixed recipes or miracle solutions. This is demonstrated by an eight-year study conducted by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain, in its build-integrated rooftop greenhouse, thermally connected to the facility itself, and located within the university campus.

Forests store carbon and support biodiversity, but management that benefits one goal may not benefit the other. A study of 150 forest plots found that increasing management intensity reduced total and aboveground carbon while increasing belowground carbon. Aboveground insect diversity and biomass also increased, whereas belowground fauna showed no overall response. Relationships varied among arthropod groups, habitats and years, revealing no single optimal management strategy. The authors suggest combining generally lower-intensity management with a mosaic of forest types to better balance carbon storage, arthropod habitat, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation.

The tea industry is an important part of China’s agricultural economy, but the industrial development challenge of “who will grow tea and how to grow it well” has become increasingly prominent. In the face of realities such as accelerating aging of the rural labor force and insufficient resource endowments of smallholder farmers, promoting the implementation and widespread adoption of agricultural socialized services has become a key path to overcoming the development dilemma of the tea industry.

How does a plant survive extreme cold while still producing flavorful, nutrient-rich fruit? New research on blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea) reveals a sophisticated metabolic strategy: the plant actively reallocates resources between two compound classes—anthocyanins and iridoids—to balance protection and palatability. 

For the first time, researchers have discovered a single gene that simultaneously controls both the sourness and the colour of citrus fruit. 

Grape aroma is shaped not only by the volatile compounds we can smell but also by their non‑volatile, sugar‑bound counterparts—flavour precursors locked away until fermentation releases them. 

A tiny deletion in a single gene can dramatically reshape the appearance—and development—of crape myrtle.