Individual competitiveness may conflict with crop-level performance 🫛 We explored how shade avoidance has changed across 100 years of soybean breeding, and how this plastic response affects yield formation and herbivore susceptibility. Many thanks to @samwuest.bsky.social and Emanuel Kopp 🙌🌱

Sam Wuest@samwuest.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our study on the evolution of shade avoidance, a "selfish trait" in plants, over 80 years of soybean breeding history. Led by @lukecoevo.bsky.social and Emanuel Kopp, and published here: doi.org/10.1111/eva..... Great stuff!

Our study on the evolution of shade avoidance, a "selfish trait" in plants, over 80 years of soybean breeding history. Led by @lukecoevo.bsky.social and Emanuel Kopp, and published here: doi.org/10.1111/eva..... Great stuff!

Shade Avoidance Restricts Soybean Breeding Progress and Increases Herbivore Susceptibility

High planting densities expose field crops to competition for light, which typically induces shade avoidance responses such as stem elongation. While adaptive in natural environments, these responses...

doi.org

Pop ecology gives us appealing slogans—“nature knows best,” “the balance of nature”—but fails to reflect reality and so misleads agriculture. Here's what the ecology of reality actually tells us. My latest... csanr.wsu.edu/pop-ecology/

How Pop Ecology Misleads Agriculture

Romanticized “pop ecology” oversimplifies nature and leads to costly mistakes in real-world crop management.

csanr.wsu.edu

🌱 Excited to share our latest pre-print! Really excited to share this work were we apply Darwinian Agriculture principles to explore how selection for cooperative traits can boost soybean breeding outcomes. A big thank @samwuest.bsky.social , Emanuel Kopp, Simon Jäggi and Pascal Niklaus.

Sam Wuest@samwuest.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Our latest preprint is out www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... . Fantastic work by @lukecoevo.bsky.social, with Emanuel Kopp, Simon Jäggi and Pascal Niklaus. #DarwinianAgriculture #soybean #breeding