Female bumblebees visiting flowers of Chamaecrista latistipula in the wild. The insect makes internal parts of the flower vibrate in order to extract protein-rich pollen grains, which it carries away ...

Key Points High-quality soil should have good drainage and tilth, a dark color, a pleasant smell, and signs of life.Avoid soil that is compacted, visibly sandy, and shows no signs of active soil ...

For farmers, sometimes the easiest way to save a crop or prevent catastrophic insect damage is to spray a pesticide. But this common practice is wreaking havoc on the soil, according to new research ...

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are already directly responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.27 million people every year, and these challenging infections contribute to the deaths of millions more ...

Prolonged droughts followed by sudden bursts of rainfall -- how do desert soil bacteria manage to survive such harsh conditions? This long-debated question has now been answered by microbiologists.

A new study reveals that soil acidity plays a critical role in determining how wheat competes with soil microorganisms for nitrogen, a nutrient essential for plant growth and global food production.

As the planet has warmed, scientists have long been concerned about the potential for harmful greenhouse gasses to seep out of thawing Arctic permafrost. Recent estimates suggest that by 2100 the ...

New research shows that when it comes to colonizing plants, microorganisms from seeds have more staying power than microorganisms from the soil. "Ever since I started working on plant microbiomes, ...

Scientists at North Carolina State University have developed a method to precisely edit a single gene in a targeted bacterial species within a microbial community, using viruses that attack bacteria ...