Our Four Grand Challenges

Plants, their ecosystems, the soils in which they grow, and their associated microbes are foundational to our health and the health of our planet. In the face of a changing climate and growing pressure on natural and agricultural ecosystems, our research, teaching and outreach address these critical Grand Challenges.

Sustainable crop production and food security

Safeguarding future food security for all with sustainably managed nutritious crops in diverse production systems, under a changing climate, with minimal loss to weeds and pathogens.

Plants and ecosystem health

Integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation to secure ecosystem and human health and foster climate justice in diverse environments.

Biodiversity, evolution, and molecular mechanisms

Understanding plant processes from molecular to ecosystem levels, and harnessing fundamental knowledge of plants, their associated microbes, and their relationships with the environment.

Urban plants and ecosystem services

Enhancing food access and ecosystem services for equitable human and ecosystem health in high population areas.

tissue culture plants
measuring chlorophyll
field day

School of Integrative Plant Science News

Learn how our research in plant and soil sciences is advancing our knowledge and securing food security and environmental sustainability. Stories from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences newsroom.

Margaret Smith in corn field

News

Margaret Smith, “embodiment of the land grant mission,” elected emerita
After almost 50 years at Cornell – from an undergraduate student to a widely respected steward of Cornell’s land grant mission – Margaret Smith has been elected professor emerita. Smith came to Cornell in 1974 and earned her bachelor’s (’78) and...
  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
mowing green test plots

Field Note

In 2025, evidence-based turf solutions from Cornell’s Bluegrass Lane research center and field sites across New York advanced environmentally sound athletic field and golf course management. The turfgrass program at Cornell University continues...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture Section
Close up of dissolved organic matter sourced from decomposition incubations in preparation for measurement with high-resolution mass spectrometry.

News

As soil microbes break down plant residues, they produce a diverse set of molecules, but this diversity starts to fall after the initial phase of decomposition (roughly 32 days). Understanding how soils retain or emit carbon dioxide during this...

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
  • Soil

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership. Learn more from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program website.