Story Archive

Feature

An apple a day … the scientific way

For decades, University of Minnesota apple breeders have been pioneering innovative new varieties—think Honeycrisp—that have become hits both in the state and around the world.

Research Brief

Nitrous oxide emissions from Corn Belt spike when soils freeze and thaw

Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide or methane. Often overlooked in climate change discussions because it’s less abundant in the atmosphere, its potency is about 300 times greater than carbon dioxide and researchers say its warming potential, especially via agriculture, demands attention.

Talking with U of M

Talking apples with U of M

If you enjoy a Honeycrisp, Haralson, SweeTango or First Kiss apple at your local orchard or farm stand this fall, you can thank the University of Minnesota apple breeding program for putting it there.

Feature

Elevating the growth of strawberries

Graduate student Kate Fessler discusses how tabletop strawberries could extend the growing season in Minnesota.

Feature

Discovering the next generation of food ingredients

The University of Minnesota’s Plant Protein Innovation Center (PPIC) is the first center of its kind in the nation for plant and other alternative proteins. PPIC was founded in 2018 to bring together researchers—including undergraduate and graduate students—and industry to study and produce sustainable plant protein ingredients. The center is housed in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Research Brief

Organic matter accumulation in oxygenated lakes

Researchers investigate why organic matter can remain for thousands of years in certain lakes without breaking down.

Research Brief

When and where to protect forests

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Colorado Boulder developed a mathematical model to determine what forests should be prioritized for conservation investments to protect species and reduce extinction risks.

Research Brief

Even modest warming could cause major changes for forests in the Great Lakes region and southern Canada

Even relatively modest climate change could dramatically alter Minnesota’s Northwoods and the southern boreal forest that runs from eastern Canada to Alaska, according to new research recently published in Nature.

Research Brief

Tracking invasive plants from space

New research demonstrates how deep learning and satellite imagery can be used to track invasive species quickly and effectively.

Talking with U of M

Talking mountain pine beetles with the U of M

For decades, the mountain pine beetle has caused an unprecedented amount of forest mortality in western North America, tearing through pine stands from the Pacific Coast all the way to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Research Brief

Constraints on the adjustment of tidal marshes to accelerating sea level rise

Study shows marshes are unlikely to keep up with rising seas under current climate change projections.

Feature

Expecting the mountain pine beetle

U of M researchers are anticipating and preparing for the arrival of a top threat to Minnesota’s trees.

Research Brief

Conserving critical habitat in the face of climate change in Midwestern lakes by managing watershed land use

Lakes across the Midwest are losing cold, oxygenated habitat as a result of climate change and nutrient pollution.

News Release

Biodiversity survey reveals that more species are threatened with extinction than previously thought

A global survey of biodiversity experts reveals key regional differences and a need to act quickly to save species.

Research Brief

Ecological restoration priorities must be informed by marginalized people

The United Nations has declared the 2020s as the decade of ecosystem restoration, but the movement runs the risk of destroying the lives of millions of the world's poorest people.

Feature

Bringing a taste of home much closer

A new Vegetable Working Group aims to fill the food void in native African vegetables for local immigrants.

Feature

Sowing seeds of change

Grad student and farmer Tiffany LaShae is healing the soil … and the historical trauma of a racist food system.

Talking with U of M

Talking pets and parasites with U of M

Dr. Amy O’Brien shares how to prevent and manage fleas or ticks in pets.

Research Brief

How wolf personalities can alter wetlands

Can wolf personalities change ecosystems? According to the latest research from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, they can.

Feature

Survivor elms

U of M researchers are wrangling the charismatic trees’ innate ability to fend off Dutch elm disease.