During the last two decades, an accumulated body of research has been carried out to exploit the potential of using plant elicitors to enhance plant immunity. Nevertheless, while major advances have now been made, most of the inducers promoting resistance to herbivores are still at the experimental level.
The expansion of European countries across the world has had profound impacts on the landscapes and biodiversity. During this transformation, plant species native to the Mediterranean Basin and temperate Europe were transported. Exploring the abundance of these species in their native and introduced communities, can help us understand the processes and prioritize conservation measures.
This is the fourth post of the series, celebrating the brilliant winners of the #plantscistory2021 contest and their stories. Benedetta Gori is a young scientist with a highly interdisciplinary background. After a degree in Food Science, and two Masters in Ethnobotany and Plant Taxonomy, she is now working as part of the Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia (UPFC) project, focusing on the conservation and revitalisation of neglected edible plants.
The recent IPCC report has been called a wake-up call. It’s not. That was 30 years ago. Since then, we’ve been hitting the snooze button. We are starting to see the beginning of catastrophic climate change. This is already affecting our ability to feed everyone, the nutritional quality of plants and their interactions with animals (including us), human health and biodiversity. This is exacerbated by clearing of native forests and destruction of natural ecosystems for short term gain. The warming is not going to stop at 1.5 °C, or 2°C or even 5°C unless action is taken across the board. There is an urgent need to make it easier for individuals, industry, and agriculture to decarbonise the economy and preserve the environment.
This is the third post of the series, celebrating the brilliant winners of the #plantscistory2021 contest and their stories. Maria Park is a PhD Student at the University of Minnesota. Her interests are forest biodiversity loss, plant ecophysiology, climate change, plant-soil interactions, remote sensing/spectral biology, and art-based science communication.
Meet Laura Kor, a conservation scientist undertaking a PhD at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and King’s College London. This is the second post of a series, celebrating the brilliant winners of the #plantscistory2021 contest and their stories.
Meet Dr. Verena Sesin, an environmental toxicologist and recent graduate. This is the first post of a new series, celebrating the brilliant winners of the #plantscistory2021 contest and their stories.
Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released today. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.
ECRi blog post on ground level ozone and its effect on the nitrogen dynamics of wheat.
The Philippines became the world’s first country to approve the commercial production of genetically modified “golden rice” that experts hope will provide 30-50 percent of the estimated average requirement of vitamin A in the developing world.
