Ministry of Agriculture

Baseflow dominates river flow during droughts across the global streamflow network

Hydrological droughts occur when rainfall shortages reduce water storage in catchments, leading to delayed and prolonged low-flow conditions. How strongly baseflow supports river flow during droughts and whether this buffering remains stable under climate warming remain uncertain...

The gut microbiota of Brandt’s vole under varying population densities reveals contrasting patterns in the natural environment

The population density of rodents fluctuates due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors, inducing density-dependent effects on organisms and their habitats. The gut microbiota of herbivores plays a pivotal role in digestion, immunity, environmental adaptation, and host fitness. Crowd...

Genome-Wide Identification of the MATE Gene Family in Sweet Cherry and Functional Characterization of PavMATE50/51 Involved in Anthocyanin Accumulation Regulated by PavMYB10.1

Abstract Anthocyanins determine the appearance and nutritional quality of sweet cherries, yet their transport mechanism remains largely unclear. Here, we performed a genome-wide identification of the MATE family in sweet cherry and characterized two key anthocyanin-related transp...

Small mammalian herbivores at moderate densities facilitate livestock growth by improving vegetation composition in grasslands

Small mammals and large herbivores have co-evolved in grasslands for millions of years, yet how they interplay remains unclear. Although large herbivores can significantly affect the smaller ones, the reversal effect is largely unknown. On the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, plateau pik...

Grassland destruction causes shifts in plant traits that persist during recovery

Old-growth grasslands assemble over millennia and support high biodiversity and many ecosystem services, but continue to undergo widespread destruction for production of crops, timber, and minerals. How biodiversity recovers after grassland destruction and the functional conseque...

Declining hydraulic safety in a drier world

Forests worldwide are increasingly exposed to soil drought under climate change, with their fates depending on the ability to maintain essential functions like water transport (hydraulics) and photosynthesis. Acclimation is expected to mitigate drought impacts, but the extent to...

Alfalfa-winter wheat rotations stabilize yields and maintain soil water sustainability under precipitation variability

Global climate change caused variation in precipitation patterns has become a threat for food security, especially for semi-arid rainfed farming system, i.e., the Loess Plateau. Whether short-term alfalfa-winter wheat rotations could serve as sustainable alternatives to winter wh...

Key innovation triggers adaptive radiation of the genus Medicago

Reconstruction of a robust phylogeny of Medicago using genome-scale nuclear data from the Angiosperms353 probe set sheds light on the origin of the genus and provides evidence that pod morphological traits acted as key innovations, playing a central role in the adaptive radiation...

Actinidia arguta AaMYB4 Confers Cold and Drought Tolerance Through Up-Regulating Antioxidant Capacity Associated with the ROS Scavenging

Actinidia arguta possesses great commercial value as an economically important fruit crop, which accumulates abundant nutrients and bioactive components with medicinal potential. However, adverse abiotic environments, especially cold and drought stress, severely restrict its vege...

Crop Growth Models: Development, Applications, Recent Advances, and Future Perspectives

Global climate change has posed a serious threat to agricultural production and food security. Crop growth models, with their excellent simulation and prediction capabilities, have become one of the important tools for guiding agricultural production and ensuring food security. T...

Biostimulatory Effect of 3-Acetonyl-3-Hydroxyoxindole on the Growth and Secondary Metabolites of Khaya senegalensis: UPLC–MS/MS Profiling and Molecular Docking Insights

Developing sustainable agricultural biostimulants that simultaneously optimize vegetative growth and specialized metabolic pathways is critical for maximizing plant growth, photosynthetic efficiency, and metabolome reprogramming. In this study, for the first time, the effects of...

Differentiation in the Underground Bud-Bank Structure of Poa pratensis Across Contrasting Alpine Grassland Habitats on the Eastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Underground bud banks play a critical role in vegetative regeneration of alpine grassland plants, but how species-level underground regenerative structures vary across contrasting habitats remains unclear. This study investigated the widely distributed clonal grass Poa pratensis...

Silicon-mediated regulation of photosynthesis, ion homeostasis and antioxidant defense improves salinity tolerance in Agropyron cristatum × A. desertorum cv. Hycrest-Mengnong

Abstract Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress that severely limits plant growth and productivity worldwide, particularly under changing climate conditions. Silicon (Si) has emerged as a promising approach for improving plant tolerance to salinity stress; however, its integrate...