Researchers accelerate crop breeding to keep pace with changing climate

Variable weather is creating extreme challenges for crop breeding in California. How do you develop crops that will thrive under certain conditions when you can no longer predict what those conditions will be?

Aerial tree mortality survey shows patterns.

Why do some trees die in a drought and others don’t? And how can we predict where trees are most likely to die in future droughts?

Scientists from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues examined those questions in a study published in the journal Ecology Letters.  

New $9.7 million grant funds search for wheat-yield genes.

Increasing wheat yield rapidly enough to meet population growth has been a challenge for wheat breeders. An international research project, headed by plant geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky, professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, is using new technology to identify the wheat genes that impact yield.

What do you get when you cross a jalapeno pepper with a bell pepper?

An ingenious group of UC Davis students are proving you can create a jumbo, organic, jalapeño “popper,” perfect for stuffing with rice, vegetables, protein, and cheese. For the last four years, the young scientists have been making crosses and developing a new variety of pepper with the taste and texture of a jalapeño, an extra-large cavity, and the right traits to thrive on organic farms.

What plants will heal the land when its future environment won't look like its past?

Climate change raises an important question for restoration ecology: What’s the best way to heal the land when its future environment won’t look like its past?

Understanding adaption to altitude, climate could be applied to other crops

With the onset of climate change and changes in irrigation, adapting food crops to grow in diverse environments could help feed the world. Now University of California, Davis, scientists are leading a major new project, funded by the National Science Foundation with $4.1 million over five years, to study genetic adaptation to different environments in maize.

Foundation supports researchers to help expand food availability and sustainable agriculture practices.

Amélie Gaudin, assistant professor of agroecology, has been awarded the 2016 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Award from the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR).

The award helps fund the work of new faculty and their teams of students and scholars to conduct research with the potential to expand food availability and encourage sustainable agriculture practices. 

Students practicing what they learn, breeding a new pepper

What do you get when you cross a jalapeño pepper with a bell pepper?

An ingenious group of UC Davis students are proving you can create a jumbo, organic, jalapeño “popper,” perfect for stuffing with rice, vegetables, protein and cheese. For the last four years, the young scientists have been making crosses and developing a new variety of pepper with the taste and texture of a jalapeño, an extra-large cavity, and the right traits to thrive on organic farms.

We express our sincerest sympathies, to the families of Vernon Singleton and Kentaro Inoue.

Vernon Singleton, viticulture and enology professor emeritus known for trailblazing research and textbooks that are still used today, died Aug. 26 at the age of 93.

“UC Davis V&E has lost a prominent member of our family,” David Block, department chair, said in a statement on the viticulture and enology website.

UC Davis research studies look at the impact of climate change and what can be done to mitigate the damage.