The continued intensification of global warming has made extreme heat events an increasingly severe threat to crop production. Cotton, as a globally important economic crop and a strategic pillar of China’s textile industry, faces significant challenges from frequent extreme high-temperature events during the summer. The high overlap between extreme heat and the blooming and boll-setting stages of cotton leads to issues such as pollen inactivation, anther non-dehiscence, and bud and boll shedding, severely affecting cotton yield and quality. This has become a critical bottleneck restricting the high-quality development of the cotton industry. Therefore, breeding heat-tolerant cotton capable of withstanding high-temperature stress has become an urgent need in the field of crop breeding.

Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand have demonstrated that Wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats not only travels great distances, but also hunt at impressive altitudes of up to 1,600 metres above ground – the altitude at which many planthoppers fly, which are dreaded insect pests of rice plants. Conventional methods of pest control such as insecticides do not work at these altitudes. By restricting the spread of high-flying planthoppers, Wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats make an important contribution to pest control and thus also to food security in South and East Asia. The article published in the scientific journal "Oecologia" therefore emphasises how important and valuable it is to protect this bat species.

Researchers have achieved a promising breakthrough in bee insemination. For the first time, an attempt using frozen semen without the addition of antibiotics has resulted in the production of female brood, with a viability rate equivalent to traditional methods. This discovery paves the way for new opportunities in bee conservation and agriculture.