This innovation in
crop production builds on the wealth
of fundamental research carried
out by Professor Dame Caroline Dean and her
lab on vernalisation — the need for some plants to experience a period
of cold weather before they can flower.
Berkeley
Lab received these competitive awards from ARPA - E's Rhizosphere Observations Optimizing Terrestrial Sequestration (ROOTS) program, which seeks to develop
crops that take carbon
out of the atmosphere and store it in soil — enabling a 50 percent increase in carbon deposition depth and accumulation while also reducing nitrous oxide emissions by 50 percent and increasing water productivity by 25 percent.