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(Reuters) – A Web application that alerts wine grape farmers when their vines are thirsty has won first place in a competition to spur entrepreneurs in the investment-starved water sector, organizers said on Monday.

Fruition Sciences, which operates in both California and France, came first among 50 teams in Imagine H2O's global competition aimed at building [...]

Rows of hillside vineyards above Napa Valley. (Credit: iStockphoto/Hilary Brodey)

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2010) — "Green" labels do not pack the same wallop for California wines that they do for low-energy appliances, organically grown produce and other environmentally friendly products, but it's not because there's anything wrong with the wine, a new UCLA-led study has found.

In [...]

Simulation of bean root systems showing how altered root growth angles lead to deep or shallow soil exploration. (Credit: Jonathan Lynch, Penn State)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2010) — Root systems are the basis of the second Green Revolution, and the focus on beans and corn that thrive in poor growing conditions will help some of the [...]

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) – Climate change has affected Kenyan coffee production through unpredictable rainfall patterns and excessive droughts, making crop management and disease control a nightmare, a researcher said on Thursday.

 
Intermittent rainfall in the 2007/08 crop year, for example, caused a terrible bout of the Coffee Berry Disease that cut Kenyan output 23 percent to [...]

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2010) — There is good news for coffee lovers and growers worldwide: A predator for the devastating coffee berry borer has just been discovered in Africa. Looking at coffee berries in Western Kenya, Dr. Juliana Jaramillo from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, Dr. Eric Chapman from the [...]

ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2010) — Plant scientists at the University of York have published the first genetic map of the medicinal herb Artemisia annua. The map is being used to accelerate plant breeding of Artemisia and rapidly develop the species into a high-yielding crop. This development is urgently needed to help meet escalating demand for [...]

Forest in Finland. (Credit: iStockphoto/David Navrátil)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2010) — Forests in northern areas are stunted, verging on the edge of survival. It has been anticipated that climate change improves their growth conditions. A study published in Forest Ecology and Management journal shows that due to their genetic characteristics trees are unable to properly benefit [...]

A surprising new CU-Boulder study indicates subalpine forests in the West will soak up less carbon dioxide as the climate warms and the growing seasons lengthen. (Credit: Image courtesy Steve Miller, CIRES)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 8, 2010) — Contrary to conventional belief, as the climate warms and growing seasons lengthen subalpine forests are likely to soak up [...]

Ecologists Sarah Kimball (left) and Amy Angert (on the right behind a creosote bush) count seedlings of winter annual plants at a study site located at Tumamoc Hill, home of the University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory. (Credit: Copyright 2007 Jonathan L. Horst.)

ScienceDaily (Dec. 20, 2009) — Global warming is giving a boost to Sonoran Desert [...]

ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2009) — A team of researchers at Louisiana Tech University has found that a naturally occurring microorganism acts as a natural herbicide against giant salvinia.

Effect of bioherbicide on giant salvinia just ten days after a single treatment was applied. (Credit: Image courtesy of Louisiana Tech University)
Giant salvinia is a noxious and invasive [...]