As climate change and population growth increase pressure on global food production, regional-scale crop growth and associated process (CROP-AP) models have become essential tools for understanding and predicting agricultural productivity. A new review, published in Science China Earth Sciences, categorizes these models into four types—statistical models, crop growth models, hydrology-crop coupling models, and ecosystem models. The study explores their main functions from five aspects: crop yield prediction, crop water consumption, agricultural non-point source pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change impact and responses, and identifies key future research directions, including model validation and calibration, the ability to simulate the coupling of crop physiology and human activities, enhancing model scalability, multi-model ensembles, data and code sharing, and the integration of artificial intelligence.

At a time when the number of teens having babies in the Mountain State remains higher than the national average, maternal and child health researchers at West Virginia University found these infants have lower birth weights and are smaller for their gestational ages compared with those born to adults.

Quaise Energy reports new insights into designing superhot geothermal plants in two recent papers. The geothermal plants of today work at relatively low temperatures, most ranging from about 100 to 250^oC. Less is known about designing plants for tapping into the heat in superhot rock over 375^oC, which could offer significant benefits. Daniel Dichter of Quaise is working to understand more, and presented his most recent results at two recent conferences.

 

It is widely believed that Earth’s atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, provide a mechanism to explain precursor oxygenation events, or “whiffs,” which may have opened the door for this to occur. Their findings suggest volcanic activity altered conditions enough to accelerate oxygenation, and the whiffs are an indication of this taking place.

Are subterranean lifeforms viable on Mars? A new interpretation of Martian seismic data by scientists Ikuo Katayama of Hiroshima University and Yuya Akamatsu of Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics suggests the presence of water below the surface of Mars. “If liquid water exists on Mars,” Katayama says, “the presence of microbial activity” is possible.