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Plant And Wildlife Sciences

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Green-thumb dynasty: BYU landscaping wins fifth national championship in six years

March 27, 2024
For the fifth time in six years, BYU students dug, pruned and planted their way to the National Collegiate Landscaping Competition title, the March Madness of college landscaping teams. BYU bested 50 other universities in the four-day event, outscoring the second-place finisher by more than 358 points and breaking the 5000-point total for the first time in the 48-year history of the tournament.
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Sustainable science: BYU professors use special bacteria to turn waste into renewable energy

August 23, 2023
For years, farming facilities across the country have utilized anaerobic digesters to convert cow manure into renewable energy. However, these digesters have been limited to a modest 30–40% efficiency. Now, groundbreaking research led by a team of BYU professors is revolutionizing the process, making it faster and more efficient than ever before by pretreating the waste with a special bacteria.
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Cougar Quinoa: BYU, Washington State University release new quinoa varieties to address global food security, nutrition

June 01, 2023
Scientists at Brigham Young University and Washington State University have developed a version of the protein-rich quinoa plant that can survive and thrive in the often-harsh growing conditions of Rwanda and other African countries.
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Awards season 2022: BYU students reap scholarships, first-place finishes

July 06, 2022
BYU students continue to make an impact in various fields of study – and they’ve got the hardware, awards and scholarships to prove it.
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Bunches of Oats: BYU professors untangle oat's evolutionary history for Nature paper

June 13, 2022
For the first time, researchers have sequenced the entire genome of a modern oat, the Swedish variety “Sang.” BYU plant and wildlife sciences professors Jeff Maughan and Rick Jellen played an important role in the international project, sequencing the genomes of two of oat’s ancient progenitors to elucidate its evolutionary history. The group’s findings were recently published as the cover article in top science journal Nature.
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BYU earns No. 1 Overall ‘Seed’ in Landscaping Championship; Brings title back to home turf

March 25, 2022
This past week BYU took home its fourth-consecutive National Collegiate Landscape Title, a championship that means BYU is once again best in the land for taking care of land… and water and rocks and trees and shrubs.




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State-funded BYU study finds elk move when hunting season starts — and it's causing problems

February 16, 2022
Research from BYU wildlife sciences professors finds that when hunting season starts, elk in Utah move off of public lands — where they can be hunted — and onto private lands — where they cannot be hunted. And then, when hunting season is over, they shift right back to public lands.



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BYU researchers sequenced the quinoa genome. Now they’re introducing hybrids of the crop to developing nations

January 11, 2022
As soils across the world become less fertile and more desert-like due to climate change, it’s getting harder for farmers, especially those in developing nations, to grow basic life-preserving crops such as corn, wheat and rice.
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A megafire induced over a century’s worth of erosion near Utah Lake — but there’s more to the story, say BYU scientists

October 22, 2021
In burned watersheds where the wildfire had consumed stabilizing vegetation and leaf litter, the rain had caused massive erosion. There was a 2,000-fold increase in sediment flux compared to unburned areas, creating a plume of ash and soil moving into Utah Lake that was visible from space.
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Ph.D. Graduate Shares His Passion for the Outdoors with the Next Generation of Students

April 18, 2021
For BYU Ph.D. graduate Steve Bates, the popular tune “Home on the Range” hits close to home. Since 1999, Bates has worked as the wildlife manager at Antelope Island State Park in Utah, and he knows a thing or two about the land “where the buffalo roam.” He’s accustomed to the dazzling sunrises and picturesque settings the island offers – and he’s dedicated much of his life to researching, preserving and protecting the wildlife living there.
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Fighting fire with seeds: BYU restoring scorched landscapes after devastating wildfires

October 14, 2020
Catastrophic fires in the West are burning hotter than ever, leaving paths of destruction through both human development and native plant ecosystems. Seed coating technology from BYU is helping restore native plant systems.
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BYU professor discovers new wildflower, working to make it widely available

May 06, 2020
“When I saw it, bells and whistles went off in my head; I sat there for two or three minutes quite stunned at its beauty,” said Mikel Stevens, a professor of plant and wildlife sciences. “It’s extremely rare. If I were to put numbers on this, I would put the chance of finding it as one in millions.”
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Polar bear den detection methods work less than half the time, finds BYU bear expert

March 12, 2020
On the ground observation finds 55% of dens are missed
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BYU study: Wildfires increase winter snowpack — but that isn’t necessarily a good thing

February 04, 2020
Deep in the Tushar mountains, some three hours south of BYU’s campus, Ph.D. student Jordan Maxwell and two other students found themselves in deep snow, both literally and figuratively.
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Analysis of butterfly genomes reveals answers to complex evolutionary history questions

October 31, 2019
Researchers from BYU and Harvard published a pivotal study in Science magazine.
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BYU scientists discover way to make crops grow in salt-damaged soil

August 22, 2019
A group of BYU researchers may have found a way to reverse falling crop yields caused by increasingly salty farmlands throughout the world.
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Water cycle diagrams are giving us a false sense of water security

June 10, 2019
New study finds texbook depictions need to be updated to show human impact
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Study finds bedrock is teeming with microorganisms protecting water quality

February 03, 2019
Nitrogen pollution from human fertilizer and fossil fuels affects two-thirds of freshwater bodies worldwide and causes billions of dollars of damage to fisheries and ecosystems annually. It triggers harmful algal blooms and dead zones where only worms and bacteria can survive.
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