Plant Biology

A five-year study at the University of Illinois Energy Farm found applying ground-up silicate rock to Midwestern farm fields can capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide and prevent it from accumulating in the atmosphere.Working with Eion Corp., researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana...

 Paleobotanists at the University of Illinois understand one thing better than perhaps anyone in the world: Studying coal balls is a long-term commitment. The late plant biologist Tom Phillips began hauling the prehistoric objects out of the ground more than a half-century ago and filled a...

The University of Illinois hosted the special event “Feeding a Heating Planet” — the third and final edition of the PBS NewsHour series “Tipping Point: Agriculture on the Brink”...

Like many ecological scientists, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign plant biology professor James O’Dwyer has spent much of his career searching for ways to measure and predict how specific plant communities...

More than four decades ago, field ecologists set out to quantify the diversity of trees on a forested plot on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, one of the most intensively studied tracts of forest on the planet. They began counting every tree with a trunk wider than a centimeter. They identified...

Anyone near campus with a green thumb—or at least an appreciation for it—has likely heard of the Plant Biology Greenhouse, including its popular 2,000 square-foot conservatory. As noteworthy as the local attraction has become in the...

Andrew Leakey, professor and head of plant biology, was featured in a weeklong "Science is for Everyone" promotion on social media by The Science Coalition, which kicked off with a short video featuring 17 questions. It covered everything from his daily bike commute to CABBI's interdisciplinary...

Lexi Gomez is knee-deep in a pond when I first see her in the U. of I. Plant Biology Greenhouse and Conservatory. A fifth-year senior who will graduate this semester, Gomez dips a net in the dark water to clear the pond of debris...

Nine researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2022 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence – reflected through their publication of multiple...

Miscanthus is one of the most promising perennial crops for bioenergy production since it is able to produce high yields with a small environmental footprint. This versatile grass has great potential to perform even better, as much less effort has been put into improving it through breeding...