This research confirms a long-held belief by scientists that ground beetles play a role in weed control. Dr David Bohan, Rothamsted Research, who led the research, said "seed predation by naturally occurring beetles in farmland does have a beneficial effect, reducing weed numbers in fields and potentially improving agricultural productivity."

Research leader Sharon Papiernik, with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, S.D., used specially designed chambers to test the permeability of dozens of films used to cover fumigated soil. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency, and the research supports the USDA commitment to agricultural sustainability.

The work, with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the University of Hamburg, will be published August 2 by Geophysical Research Letters.

28% of cod products in Ireland are mislabelled, as compared to 7% in the UK, according to research published today in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

This is the first time that researchers have compared the labelling of cod products sold in Ireland and the UK. Both countries operate under the same EU policies for seafood traceability and labelling.

Using a DNA barcoding technique (COI barcoding gene), scientists from University College Dublin, Ireland, genetically identified 226 cod products purchased from supermarkets, fishmongers and take-away outlets across Ireland (131) and the UK (95), and compared the results against the product labels.

Invasive plant species in Chile pose a higher threat to its neighbour, Argentina, than vice versa. This was concluded by scientists from the University of Concepción in Chile and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) after analysing the flora of both countries. In particular, 22 non-native species which occur in Chile on connecting roads leading to Argentina present a high risk according to the researchers, writing in the journal Biological Invasions.

Trade between Chile and Argentina mainly takes place by road. Over the past decade, the quantity of road freight between the two countries has more than tripled. Although the Andes once functioned as a natural barrier between both countries, the mountain range has been made increasingly porous by the increase in transport.

Ann Kennedy, at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Land Management and Water Conservation Research Unit in Pullman, Wash., studies the biological properties of soils that affect wind erosion. She analyses the soil for the fatty acid or lipid content from the community of soil microbes living in the soil. It is this lipid content that forms the living community's fingerprint.

Scientists in the Departments of Animal Science, Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, and Veterinary Microbiology at Iowa State University and the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment have studied the effects of grazing management practices on sediment, phosphorus, and pathogen deposits into pasture streams.

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous studies have shown that honey bee hives are contaminated with an array of agricultural chemicals, many of which the bees themselves bring back to the hive in the form of contaminated pollen and nectar, said University of Illinois entomology professor and department head May Berenbaum, who led the new research.

"New and effective technologies for the control of social insect pests may be devised as a result of this work," says corresponding author Rebeca B. Rosengaus of Northeastern University, Boston, MA.

In this study, the researchers fed wood and the antibiotic rifampin to an experimental group of termite queens and kings, while feeding wood and water to a control group.

The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest.

In a study supported in part by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Michigan--one of 26 such NSF LTER sites around the world--scientists concluded that this simplification is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use.

"This research suggests that there are simple ecological solutions--such as preservation or restoration of semi-natural lands within large agricultural regions--that could reduce the need for insecticides and contribute to agricultural economies," says Nancy Huntly, NSF program director for the network of LTER sites.