New research from the University of California, Davis, is shedding light on when and where to plant tree seedlings to help restore forests after high-severity wildfires, and it has a lot to do with shrubs. 

In hotter, drier areas where natural regeneration is weaker, well-timed tree planting can boost recovery by up to 200%, but the outcome also depends on competition with shrubs, a paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management concludes.

Rice is a staple food crop for more than half the world’s population, but most farmers don’t grow high-yielding varieties because the seeds are too expensive. Researchers from the University of California’s Davis and Berkeley campuses have identified a potential solution: activating two genes in rice egg cells that trigger their development into embryos without the need for fertilization, which would efficiently create high-yielding clonal strains of rice and other crops.

Long-term smoke exposure from massive wildfires lowers the energy reserves of orchard trees and can cut their nut production by half, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found. The smoke can affect trees for months after a megafire, depressing their bloom and the next season’s harvest. This finding reveals a new danger from wildfires that could affect plant health in both agricultural and natural environments.

Nature Plants published the study today (Oct. 2).

On a campus where each budding scientist brings unique potential, a student organization at UC Davis recognizes that the future of science thrives on diverse voices and perspectives.

Growing beside sleek vertical solar panels, lush green pepper plants flourish at the height of summer. A team of UC Davis researchers are analyzing an agrivoltaics system that combines farming with solar technology to boost crop growth and promote sustainability.

This innovative approach, according to UC Davis Associate Professor Majdi Abou Najm with the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, could be a valuable solution as California faces a hotter, drier climate.

Venkatesan Sundaresan, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Plant Biology and Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded a 2024 Wolf Prize in Agriculture for key discoveries on plant developmental biology of relevance to crop improvement.

Growers often harvest tomatoes before they ripen in hopes of extending shelf life and avoiding crop loss. But that act of removing the fruit from the vine affects flavor. And storing tomatoes below certain temperatures also hurts quality and shelf life. 

New research published this month out of University of California, Davis, examined changes in tomatoes at the molecular level to better understand what happens during postharvest handling and cold storage. 

Dan Potter is the new chair of the Department of Plant Sciences, overseeing graduate and undergraduate programming, 60 faculty members, several emeriti professors and many greenhouses, labs and teaching facilities. 

Room 1026 in the Sciences Laboratory Building is not your ordinary space. It’s home to the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium and a world of 300,000 preserved plants, including lichens, algae, mosses and other specimens.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists and researchers from University of California, Davis, are studying agave plants in the Golden State as farmers are turning to the crop as a potential drought-tolerant option of the future.

The research is centered on studying agave genetics, virus susceptibility, pest control, soil management and crop productivity, said Ron Runnebaum, a viticulture and enology professor who is leading the team of researchers at the newly formed UC Davis Agave Center.