Education and Outreach Archives - Page 2 of 3

Apr 11

0

A year at the Global Plant Council

By Isabel | ASPB, Blog, GPC Community

Last April I joined the Global Plant Council as a New Media Fellow along with Sarah Jose from the University of Bristol. The GPC is a small organization with a big remit: to bring together stakeholders in the plant and crop sciences from around the world! As New Media Fellows, Sarah and I have have assisted in raising the online profile of the GPC through various social media platforms. We wrote about our experiences in growing this blog and the GPC Twitter and Facebook accounts in the The Global Plant Council Guide to Social Media, which details our successes and difficulties in creating a more established online presence.

Why do it?

My wheat growing in Norfolk field trials. I have spent every summer for the past 3 years out here analysing photosynthesis and other possible contributors to crop yield

I chose to apply for the fellowship during the third year of my PhD. Around this time I had started to consider that perhaps a job in research wasn’t for me. It was therefore important to gain experience outside of my daily life in the lab and field, explore possible careers outside of academia and of course to add vital lines to my CV. I still loved science, and found my work interesting, so knew I wanted to stay close to the scientific community. Furthermore, I had always enjoyed being active on Twitter, and following scientific blogs, so the GPC fellowship sounded like the perfect opportunity!

The experience

I think I can speak for both Sarah and myself when I say that this fellowship has been one of the best things I’ve done during my PhD. Managing this blog for a year has allowed me to speak to researchers working on diverse aspects of the plant sciences from around the world. My speed and writing efficiency have improved no end, and I can now write a decent 1000 word post in under an hour! I discovered the best places to find freely available photos, and best way to present a WordPress article. Assisting with Twitter gave me an excuse to spend hours reading interesting articles on the web – basically paid procrastination – and I got to use my creativity to come up with new ways of engaging our community.

Filming interviews at the Stress Resilience Forum. Next career move, camera woman?

Of course going to Brazil for the Stress Resilience Symposium, GPC AGM and IPMB was a highlight of my year. I got to present to the international community both about my own PhD research and the work of the GPC, Sarah and I became expert camera women while making the Stress Resilience videos, and I saw the backstage workings of a conference giving out Plantae badges on the ASPB stand at IPMB. It didn’t hurt that I got to see Iguassu Falls, drink more than a few caipirinhas and spend a sneaky week in Rio de Janeiro!

Helping out on the ASPB stand with Sarah

Thank you

Working with the GPC team has been fantastic. I learnt a lot about how scientific societies are run and the work they do by talking to the representatives from member societies at the AGM. The executive board have been highly supportive of our activities throughout. Last but not least, the lovely GPC ladies, Ruth, Lisa and Sarah have been an amazing team to work with – I cannot thank you enough!

I have now handed in my PhD, left the GPC, and moved on to a new career outside of academic research. I’m going into a job focused on public engagement and widening access to higher education, and have no doubt my GPC experiences have helped me get there. My advice if you’re unsure about where you want to end up after your PhD? Say “yes” to all new opportunities as you never know where they will take you.

Thank you the GPC! Hopefully I’ll be back one day!

Thank you! It’s been amazing!

Mar 30

0

The importance of botanic gardens in the 21st century

By Isabel | Blog, GPC Community, Public Engagement

Image credit: Tom Paxton

It felt particularly fitting to travel to a plant science workshop in Japan, home of hanami, the ancient celebration of the beauty of flowers. Researchers from Heidelberg University, Germany; Kyoto University, Japan; and the University of Bristol, UK, met to discuss their cutting edge research in a meeting aptly titled ‘Novel Frontiers in Botany’.

Plant science at all three of these universities is enhanced by their botanic gardens. Heidelberg’s sounded especially impressive: established in 1593, it boasts over 10,000 species! As a former employee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK), which was recently threatened with a £5 million cut in government spending, I started thinking how important botanic gardens such as these are as vital tools for research, conservation, education and recreation.

Research

Kyoto University Botanic Gardens. Image credit: Sarah Jose

Botanic gardens are focused pools of amazing expertise in horticulture, taxonomy and ethnobotany, and this knowledge is constantly growing. Plant collections at Kyoto, Heidelberg and Bristol botanic gardens are continuously being visited by researchers studying almost all aspects of plant science. Some of the rarest species in the world can be cultivated and studied in botanic gardens without damaging wild populations; others are investigated for potential medicinal properties, evolution is studied by building banks of DNA, and we can get a fantastic overview of the diversity of life, from the microscopic structures of pollen to the architecture of trees.

Ex situ conservation

In the same way that zoos protect endangered species, botanic gardens around the world host and preserve at least a third of all known species of flowering plants.

Wollemi pine pollen cone. Image credit: Velella. Used under license: CC BY-SA 3.0.

One of my favorite examples is the wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis). Plant nerds like me will know that the wollemi pine was only known from 2 million-year-old fossils until field officer David Noble discovered around 100 plants growing at Wollemi National Park, Australia. These living fossils were propagated by botanic gardens in Australia and internationally, and are now a popular tree in cultivation around the world.

Another important facet of ex situ conservation is the creation of seed banks. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, established the Millennium Seed Bank in 1996, which aims to provide an ‘insurance policy’ against extinction by storing the seeds of 25% of all seed-bearing plants. The majority of the stored 75,000 species will be rare or threatened with extinction.

In situ conservation

As well as bolstering plant species on their own sites, many botanic gardens are involved in restoration projects of damaged ecosystems around the world. Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a global network for botanic gardens, describes many such efforts including the restoration of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest by the Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden, the restoration of local upland forest by Kenya’s Brackenhurst Botanic Garden, and Hawaiian beach and coastal restoration by the US National Tropical Botanic Garden. In each case, rare and endemic species of plant replaced invasive species and increased the biodiversity of the entire ecosystem.

Education and recreation

Botanic gardens often hold events, like the Easter sculpture festival at the University of Bristol Botanic Gardens. Image credit: Sarah Jose

Botanic gardens are a great place for an afternoon stroll with the family, which plays nicely into their ulterior motive: education. Plants are amazing but they are often overlooked. By displaying the most wonderful and fascinating species from around the world, botanic gardens kindle an interest in plants from the general public, as well as potentially teaching children where food comes from, or fostering a love of nature and the environment.

It doesn’t stop there though. As well as restoration projects, which often include local people who learn about the economic importance of preserving their native ecosystems, the gardens can be involved in broader efforts. For example, the National Museums of Kenya are looking to develop a botanic garden. The garden will facilitate the transfer and accumulation of ethnobotanical knowledge surrounding the relationships between the Kenyan people and their local plant species; useful information that will also promote the importance of conserving their local flora.

In conclusion

Botanic gardens are integral to the study and appreciation of a wide range of plant taxa, and their importance should not be underestimated. Too many people view them as outdated and push to cut their funding, but we need to show that dynamic and cutting edge research, as well as public appreciation for plants and the environment, relies on their continuation both now and in the future.

Mar 18

0

International Year of Pulses 2016 – join the movement!

By Isabel | Blog, Public Engagement

Image: IYP2016.org

People all over the world are getting involved in the International Year of Pulses 2016, and it is easy to see why when you look at the amazing benefits pulses have for both the environment and health.

Pulses are a fit for the developed and developing world. Not only do they have the potential to help eradicate hunger, they may also help to tackle many chronic health conditions. Over 800 million people globally suffer from acute or chronic undernourishment, and two billion people are overweight, which is leading to health problems such as obesity and diabetes. The International Year of Pulses will allow us to demonstrate the integral role these nutrient-dense foods have in global food security and nutrition.

In the last few months, we have seen how El Niño, climate change, subsidies on cereals (excluding pulses), and lack of funding have taken their toll on pulse production. This comes during a time where we should be focusing on achieving an extremely sustainable and nutrient-dense food supply.

2016 is the year to put pulse crops back into the spotlight and give them the central role they require. We should be funding pulse breeding, giving attention to research and innovation, and developing policies that provide consistent signals on the importance of pulses.

This is why we are grateful to the United Nations for declaring 2016 as the International Year

Image: IYP2016.org

of Pulses (IYP). Since its launch in November 2015, it has been amazing to see how IYP activities have skyrocketed, with social media achieving 200 million impressions to date, and media coverage around the globe of more than 800 stories. Over 1.45 million people have engaged with IYP social media channels across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. The hashtag #PulseFeast dominated January’s activities and achieved a reach of 21 million on January 6, with 141 events in 36 countries. Read the full report here. Currently, there are hundreds of activities devoted to IYP occurring all over the globe.

We have seen some fantastic IYP-dedicated events in the first few months of 2016, including an Australian launch gala, a Pulse Feast Celebration in Sri Lanka, and a launch gala in Turkey. In the Netherlands, a food truck named Blije Boon has been giving pulse tastings throughout the country, including visiting four large supermarkets. In total, they have reached approximately 2000 visitors per day, giving away a wonderful pulse booklet for free!

Image: IYP2016.org

One of my personal favourite IYP-related events is the LovePulses Product Showcase. The Global Pulse Confederation (GPC – not to be confused with the Global Plant Council!) wants people from all 193 countries of the world to showcase their innovations using pulses to develop novel food products, and to build awareness of IYP. We have national competitions in nine different countries, and a virtual online competition for those who don’t have a national contest. We are seeing some delicious submissions!

This year has only just begun, and with numerous events still yet to happen we cannot wait to see what comes next! Want to learn about other upcoming events or activities? Join the movement! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube (@LovePulses).

This post was written by Tilly at the Global Pulse Federation.

Feb 12

0

Flowers of the Global Plant Council

By Isabel | Blog, GPC Community

A while ago we published a blog post about the sequencing of the Bauhinia genome. Bauhinia x blakeana is the national flower of Hong Kong, so naturally this sparked our interest in the global importance of flowers as national symbols, such as the English rose. Here we list just a few of the more interesting and unusual plants that are the national symbols of countries hosting GPC member organizations.

India Indian Society for Plant Physiology

Nelumbo nucifera

The Lotus Plant (Nelumbo nucifera) is an aquatic plant in the Nelumbonaceae family, and is the national flower of India and Vietnam. Image by alterna used under Creative Commons 2.0.

The lotus plant (Nelumbo nucifera) is considered sacred in the Buddhist and Hindu religions, and been used for over 7000 years in Asia as a source of food, herbal remedy and fibers for clothing. In 2013 its genome was sequenced, allowing its phylogenetic history and adaptations for the aquatic environment to be more fully understood. For example, the plant has a number of genes enabling its adaptation to the nutrient poor soils in waterways, altering its novel root growth, iron regulation and phosphate starvation.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide, Australia, showed that the lotus actually has the ability to regulate the temperature of its flowers, maintaining them between 30 and 36 °C even when air temperature dropped below this. Quite how or why it does this is still unknown, but warmer flowers could play a role in attracting cold-blooded insects and increasing their activity once on the flowers to enhance pollination. An alternative explanation could be that warmer temperatures are required for pollen production.

Another fantastic fact about the lotus is seed viability. A 1300 year old lotus fruit found in a dry lakebed in China was successfully germinated, providing an insight into the aging process of fruits and other organisms

Australia Australian Society of Plant Scientists

Acacia pycnantha

The golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha) is a member of the Fabaceae family. The plant is a small tree that can grow up to 12 meters high! In Australia the 1st September is National Wattle Day. Image by Sydney Oats used under Creative Commons 2.0.

The Australian national flower is the Acacia pycnantha, or wattle, first described in 1942. Its name comes from the Greek pyknos (dense) and anthos (flowers) describing the dense groups of flowers that form on the tree. The wattle is an important source of tannins, and as such has been introduced to parts of southern Europe such as Italy and Portugal in addition to India and New Zealand. The wattle is also found in South Africa where it has now become an invasive pest, and various methods of biological control such as gall forming wasps (Trichilogaster signiventris) are being used to control populations.

Galls on a wattle tree from T. signiventris. Eggs are laid by the wasp in the buds of flower heads and the hatched larvae induce gall formation which prevents flower development. This in turn prevents pollination and continued propagation of the Wattle population. Image by Sydney Oats used under Creative Commons 2.0.

Japan The Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists

Yellow Chrysanthemum

The yellow Chrysanthemum is a member of the Asteraceae family. Species of the Chrysanthemum enus are popular ornamental plants, and as such many hybrids and thousands of cultivars in a variety of colors and shapes can be found. Image by Joe deSousa used under Creative Commons 1.0.

Although cherry blossom is often the flower most associated with Japan, yellow Chrysanthemum flowers are equally as important. The flower is used as the Imperial Seal of Japan and on the cover of Japanese passports. Species of the genus Chrysanthemum are members of the Asteraceae (daisy) family.

Two species of the Chrysanthemum genus, C. cinerariifolium and C. coccineum, synthesize pyrethrum compounds, which attack insect nervous systems. As such these species make good companion plants in the field, repelling insects from economically valuable neighboring plants that do not have their own defense mechanisms. The naturally produced toxins are widely used in organic farming, and many synthetic versions are also available commercially.

South Africa African Crop Science Society

Protea cynaroides

The king protea (Protea cynaroides) is a member of the Proteaceae family and the national flower of South Africa. The South African cricket team has the nickname the Proteas, after the flower. Image by Virginia Manso, used under Creative Commonds 2.0.

The king protea (Protea cynaroides) can grow up to 2 meters in height and comes in several colors and varieties. The plant grows in harsh, dry regions prone to wildfire, and as such has a number of adaptations for the environment. For example, a long tap-root is used for accessing deep water, and tough leathery leaves are resilient to both biotic and abiotic stress. The protea has a thick underground stem with many dormant buds. After a wildfire these dormant buds can become active, forming new stems allowing the plant to survive!

The king protea is only one species within the large Proteaceae family, 120 species of which are now endangered listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. The Protea Atlas Project aims to map the geographical location of proteas through Southern Africa in order to help preserve the family. In addition to protea, Southern Africa is home to around 24 000 plant taxa, 80% of which occur no where else in the world. A wider objective of the Protea Atlas Project is to map species-richness patterns in Southern Africa. The distribution of Protea plants within the region largely seems to match the species-richness patterns of other plant species, and therefore proteas are being used as surrogates for plant diversity. Find out more about the project and get involved here.

Germany and Estonia EUCARPIA, EPSO, FESPB, SPPS

Centaurea cyanus

The cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) is a member of the Asteraceae family, like the Chrysanthemum. Image by Anita used under Creative Commons 2.0.

We have a large number of European and Scandinavian member groups, and choosing one flower to represent all of those was a challenge. However, the humble Cornflower seemed an appropriate choice to represent our European societies. This member of the daisy family is not only the national flower of Germany and Estonia, but has a place in many Scandinavian cultures being the symbol for a number of political parties in Finland and Sweden.

In the past this beautiful flower was regarded as a weed, but now due to intensive agricultural practices has become endangered. Cornflowers have many uses in addition to being an ornamental plant. The plant is used in many blends of herbal tea, flowers are edible in salads, and the blue coloring can be used as a clothes dye.

Canada Canadian Society of Plant Biologists

Acer

Although not technically a flower, the leaf of the maple tree is such an iconic symbol on the Canadian flag we just had to include it (we are the Global Plant Council after all). There are many species of maple tree in the genus Acer, which can be distinguished from other genus of trees by their distinctive leaf shape. The most important species of maple in Canada is probably Acer saccharum, the sugar maple. The sap of this species is the major source of maple syrup, and its hard wood is popular for use in flooring and furniture.

Acer saccharum, the sugar maple, in Autumn. Image by Mark K. used under Creative Commons 2.0.

The sugar maple grows throughout the USA and Canada, favoring cooler climates and is a very shade tolerant species. Despite this, the sugar maple is now in decline in many regions. It is highly susceptible to increased levels of air pollution and changes to salt levels. As such the species is now being replaced in many regions by the hardier Norway Maple.

Argentina Argentinian Society of Plant Physiology

Erythrina crista-galli

E. crista-galli, the cockspur coral tree, is the national tree in Argentina. Also known in Argentina as the ceibo, the bright red flower of this tree is also the national flower of Argentina and Uruguay.

The bright red flowers of E.crista-galli are the national flowers of Argentina and Uruguay. Image by Gabriella F.Ruellan used under Creative Commons 2.0.

The small tree is a legume from the family Fabaceae. Characteristically of species from this family, the fruit of the cockspur coral tree are dry pods, and the roots have nodules containing nitrogen fixing bacteria making them important for increasing the available nitrogen in the soil. Although native to South America, the tree is also naturalized in Australia, where it is becoming an emerging environmental weed. The tree is invading waterways and wetlands displacing native species, and its spread is now being controlled in New South Wales.

If your country has a particularly interesting national flower that we have missed let us know! Perhaps we can include it in a future blog post.

Jan 01

0

Plant scientists respond: “Plants are boring!”

By Isabel | Blog, GPC Community

Throughout my PhD, I often found myself explaining why plants are fascinating, justifying why I was devoting four years of my life to researching the minute details of their biology.

A few weeks ago, I thought I’d ask the #plantsci community on Twitter what makes them love plants. The response was phenomenal, so I thought I’d share it here as a fun way to transition to 2017!

(This is just a handful of the huge number of comments. To read them all, click here.)

Hey #plantsci, I need your help! What makes you love plants? What’s your comeback to “plants are boring”? Thanks! Plz RT! @PlantTeaching 😉

— Sarah Jose (@JoseSci) November 9, 2016

Many of us are amazed by the fact that they can fend for themselves, rather than running away from harsh conditions or predators:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching Plants have to deal with many of the same struggles as animals – and they can’t even run away. — Alice Foxall (@alicefoxall) November 13, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching They’re incredibly resilient and adaptive all without having a nervous system or being able to move!

— Silvia Caldararu (@SCaldararu) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @DJPMoore Plants survive and thrive in places most humans would never dare even to visit. — Tom Buckley (@TomBuckleyLab) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci forever plastic and survive in the situation wherever they lay their roots. Not denying that’s cool!

— Kelly (@kaatkins7) November 10, 2016

Don’t worry though, because plants can fight back:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching my tree was attacked by aphids. It released a sweet liquid that attracted ants, chasing away the aphids! — Allen Greeley (@taku2473allen) November 9, 2016

They can alter their environments in really interesting ways too:

@JoseSci @SCIHorticulture @PlantTeaching exudates – active modification of rhizosphere to block toxins entering roots and mobilise nutrients

— Mark Nason (@Cornwall_SciEnv) November 9, 2016

A lot of people are interested in plant reproduction:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching #Plant sex lives (reproductive life cycles) are so much more complex than ours. Animal life cycles are boring. — Eve Emshwiller (@EveEmshwiller) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @Botanical_ @PlantTeaching look at all of those reproductive strategies. Plants are truly amazing!

— The Morris Lab @MTSU (@themorrislab) November 9, 2016

Some species can survive for millennia:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching even relatively short lived yes love longer than humans… some trees count in centuries — Dave Moore (@DJPMoore) November 9, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching Try cutting one of your appendages off and see if it regrowth like a plant can.

— Edith L. Hardcastle (@elhardcast) November 9, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching some genetic individuals (plants) might live forever — Dave Moore (@DJPMoore) November 9, 2016

Much of the rest of the ecosystem relies on them…

@JoseSci @DJPMoore Plants can live without us, but we can’t live without them. Animals are just parasites on a biosphere fueled by plants.

— Tom Buckley (@TomBuckleyLab) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching if animals died out many plants would survive…if plants died out most animals would die also — Dave Moore (@DJPMoore) November 9, 2016

… and of course, they give us much of what we need to survive…

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching bread, beer, wine, oxygen…

— Matthew Gilliham (@IonPlants) November 10, 2016

@MMLewandowski52 @PlantTeaching @JoseSci literally food out of (thin) air…especially in aeroponic systems — Krishna Udaiwal (@Plant_Learner) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching Plants do everything we do + capture sun E + synthesize virtually all useful medicines and poisons + are beautiful

— Paul Twigg (@UNKBiol106) November 9, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching Kinda hard to breathe without ’em, for one! — Dan Lin (@DLinYZ) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching Well, they make colours, flavours, fragrances, drugs…

— Anne Osbourn (@AnneOsbourn1) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching we depend on plants for just about everything, plants are _not_ boring! — McPanos (@panagopucakes) November 18, 2016

We need to highlight how amazing plants are, to counteract “plant blindness”:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching read this amazing article about #plantblindness by @fossilplants https://t.co/xYWS0MATGM — Lyza Maron (@LyzaMaron) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @Botanical_ @PlantTeaching plants are all around, always. We watch them seldom. The beauty of the unseen — SEB (@SEBriologia) November 9, 2016

Plant blindness means that many people are unaware of the amazing things that are happening around them:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching 1) only boring on a minute-by-minute timescale – sped-up timelapses reveal remarkable behaviour (eg phototropism) — Daniel Seaton (@DanielDSeaton) November 11, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching plants are more just more veiled about how cool they are…like the quiet kid w/ some WILD tricks up their sleeve

— Beth Ansaldi (@AWomaninSTEM) November 9, 2016

Being scientists, a lot of people liked how easy plants are to work with!

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching Plants stay in one place, so I can sample them easily. I love them for that! — A.C. Papageorgiou (@ACPapageorgiou) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching It is not as much paperwork when you want to dissects plants! And their stem cells make Sequoia trees live (almost) forever ! — Marie Pireyre (@MapiMry) November 10, 2016

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching They stand still while I measure them! — Vigdis Vandvik (@VVandvik) November 10, 2016

Some of the biggest scientific discoveries were made in plants:

@JoseSci @PlantTeaching the big discoveries. Mendel & the pea; Hook & first cell; McClintock & transposable elements; PTGS in petunia

— Peter Etchells (@peter_etchells) November 9, 2016

In conclusion:

.@JoseSci @JohnInnesCentre @PlantTeaching

Plants are awesome!

— Molecular Plant Path (@MPPjournal) November 11, 2016

Thanks to everyone who took part in this twitter chat! This is just a subset of the huge number of comments we received. To read them all, click here!

Have we missed anything? Why do you love plants?

Nov 25

0

The Global Plant Council Guide To Social Media

By Isabel | ASPB, Blog, Future Directions, GPC Community, Plantae, SEB

Here at the GPC we love social media. It provides a fantastic platform upon which we can spread awareness about our organisation and the work we do. Since Lisa Martin’s appointment as Outreach and Communications Manager in February of this year, and the New Media Fellows two months later, we have expanded our online presence and are reaching more people than ever before. We still have a way to go, but here are a few things we’ve learnt over the past year that might provide you with a bit more social media know-how.

Tweet, tweet, and tweet some more

To increase your following as an individual try to produce maybe one or two good tweets everyday. If you’re tweeting on behalf of an organization and have more time or people power, 5–8 tweets a day should be your target.

The Global Plant Council twitter account now has over 1500 followers. Find us @GlobalPlantGPC

Our Twitter following has grown rapidly over the past year. We had 294 followers on Twitter in September 2014 and now have over 1500! Much of this has been down to there now being four of us maintaining the account rather than Ruth Bastow (@PlantScience) on her own.

The more you tweet, and the better you tweet, the more followers you will get. Things move fast in the Twittersphere, so just a few days of inactivity can mean you drop off the radar.

For more hints about using Twitter see this great article from Mary Williams (@PlantTeaching): Conference Tweeting for Plant Scientists Part 1 and Part 2.

If your followers won’t come to you, go to your followers

Decide on who you want to connect with, find out which social media platform they se most, and set yourself up!

As a global organization we want to connect with all our members and plant scientists around the world, so we need to use different means of communication to do this. In April 2015 we set up a Spanish language Twitter account with Juan Diego Santillana Ortiz (@yjdso), an Ecuadorian-born PhD student at Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany, who translates our tweets into Spanish.

Of course Twitter is not universally popular, and our main following seems to come from the

The newest edition to the GPC social media family is our GPC Scoop.It account which you can find here

UK and US. To connect with those choosing to use different communication platforms, New Media Fellow Sarah Jose set up a GPC Scoop.It account in September 2015. Around this time we also set up a GPC Facebook page after many of our member organizations told us this was their primary means of connecting with their communities. Although relatively new, this page is slowly gaining momentum and we hope it will provide a great outlet for conversation in the future. Find out about which of our member organizations are on Facebook here.

If there’s a site you use to stay up to date with science content that we don’t have a presence on, do let us know and we will look into setting up an account!

Generate your own content

Ultimately, the best way to expand your reach online is to generate your own content.

The GPC blog was started in October 2014, and in its first 14 months of life received an average of 142 views per month. However, since Lisa, myself and Sarah started working with the GPC, we have been generating one blog post every week, with the result of our monthly views shooting up to almost 700 views per month since May.

This just shows that generating interesting and regular content really does work in terms of increasing reach and online presence. All these blog posts have also contributed towards a growing following on our various social media sites over the past six months.

If you want to write for us, please send us an email or get in touch on Twitter! We are always looking for contributions from the plant science community. Perhaps you’ve recently attended a scientific meeting, are doing a really cool piece of research, organized a great outreach activity or have seen something relevant in the news. Whatever it is, we want to know.

We’re also happy to write about the GPC for your blog or website, so if you would like us to contribute an article, please get in touch!

Cover as many platforms as possible

Try to have a global presence across as many platforms as you think you can maintain, although an inactive account on any social media site won’t do you any favors, so don’t take on too much!

I’ve already described our presence on Twitter, Facebook, Scoop.It and the blog, all of which help make our organization accessible, however people want to use social media.

In addition to this we of course have the GPC website, and Lisa sends out a monthly e-Bulletin providing a summary of all the information published on the website for that month. Anyone can sign up here to stay up to date with our activities, and it’s free!

In a bid to further reach out to members that perhaps don’t engage with social media (yet!), Lisa wrote this article explaining what the GPC does and sent it out to be published by our various member organizations.

Plantae

New Media Fellow Sarah Jose promotes our new Plantae platform at IPMB 2015

Confession time, this isn’t really a helpful hint on how to use social media, but Plantae is so good it deserves a section all on its own!

We are hoping Plantae, set up by the GPC in collaboration with the ASPB, and with support from the SEB, will be the digital ecosystem for the plant science community. It will provide a platform for plant scientists to collaborate with one another, network, and access journals, advice and jobs. You can read more about Plantae on our blog, here.

It’s now in beta testing and you can sign up to give it a go at http://www.plantae.org. Let us know what you think!

Oct 07

0

International Year of Soils

By Isabel | Blog, Public Engagement

This year, 2015, is the International Year of Soils (IYS). To celebrate IYS David Lindbo (@DavidLindbo), former president of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and an IYS committee leader, explains why soils are vital to sustain every aspect of life (including plants of course!).

It’s the International Year of Soils! Tell this to someone and you’ll often get the response: “A year of dirt? Who came up with that idea?” So here is a blog post to answer exactly that and explain why soils are not just dirt.

Why soil?

Consider the world around you and all the things that make the earth a great place to live. We all require food, clothing, shelter, and water to survive – all of which are related to a single, often overlooked resource: SOIL.

Food

Consider your breakfast this morning: did you have cereal with milk, sausage and bacon, pastries, toast, orange juice? What were the ingredients? Flour from wheat, oranges from a tree, milk from a cow that has been fed on grass, meat from animals who are fed with grains and forage feed. All your breakfast foods, and foods in general, can be traced to plants, and plants are dependent on soil! Plants get water from the soil as well as the nutrients they need to grow. If we really think about it, when you eat, you are “eating soil”, several steps removed.

Shelter

Next, think about the home you live in. It is easy to see that bricks, made from clay and sand, are connected to soil. Lumber is wood, which comes from trees, which need soil to survive. So when you look at your house consider that it would not exist as you know it without the soil.

Clothes

Finally, consider the clothes you wear. Natural fibers used to make clothing are all directly related to plants – cotton and flax (linen) are plant fibers, wool is fiber made from the hair of animals that eat plants, and silk is made by silk worms that eat plants. Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber made by processing naturally occurring cellulose, which comes from plants or trees. Even synthetic materials are derived from petroleum products made from fossil fuels, which in turn originate from plant and animal remains that have undergone extreme changes deep in the earth. They too needed soil when they were living. Once again we see that soil is critical to our clothing needs.

Water

Soil is critical to our food, fiber, and shelter needs. It also plays an important role in providing us with one other essential item: water. There is a finite amount of water on earth, and only a small proportion is drinkable. Given that it is constantly recycled, how does this water remain clean enough for us to drink?

In urban areas we treat water with chemicals to make it suitable for human consumption. However, many communities get their water from chemically untreated groundwater, which is treated by the soil instead. As water infiltrates and percolates through the soil, the chemical and physical properties of soil clean the water by removing contaminants. Soil is perhaps the largest single water (and wastewater) treatment plant in the world. Soil helps keep our drinking water clean by filtering it.

Healthy Soil for Healthy Plants. Photo by Natural Resource Conservation Service Soil Health Campaign used under Creative Commons 2.0

Happy soils mean happy plants

Soils are essential to plants and provide many of the nutrients they need to grow. In soils lacking adequate amounts of nutrients for crop production, we add some to ensure growth and a reliable food supply. These nutrients are then stored in the soil until the plant needs them. In this way soil acts as a nutrient reservoir for plant growth and survival.

Soil also provides critical support for the plant roots that anchor the plant to prevent it from falling down, being washed away or blown over. Soil also holds water in its pores. The water stored in the pores is removed by plant roots as needed for the plant to grow and photosynthesize.

To protect life we must protect soil

Soil connects us all. We need it to survive. As we move through 2015, the International Year of Soils, remember that if you know soil you know life, and with no soil there would be no life.

More information:

IYS is based around 12 monthly themes to reflect the diverse values of soils: information on these is available here. The SSSA also has a YouTube channel exploring the importance of soil, and a blog.

Sep 30

0

The Sound of Science

By Isabel | Blog, Public Engagement

By Berkley Walker

I grew up with a lot of music in my home. My mother is a voice teacher and we had a constant stream of students filling our house with scales, show tunes, and arias. I wish I could say that as a teenager I graciously accepted music’s place in my home and regularly took advantage of my mom’s expertise, but I didn’t. I instead tried to drown out the incessant singing by watching re-runs of Dragon-Ball Z and playing after-school sports.

So it is ironic that as a scientist I would find myself drawn back to music in order to communicate the importance of plant science research to those outside of academic circles. This communication is made possible through the Sounds of Science, a collaboration between plant scientists and music composition students.

What does plant science sound like?

The premise of Sounds of Science is simple. More people go to music concerts than lectures, so what if we made a lecture more like a concert?

To make our science into music we handed our primary research data to a group of talented music composition students at the University of Illinois (USA) and told them to create. The end results were varied compositions that reflected the nuance of the science in surprising ways. The culmination of the collaboration was a concert, at which we scientists talked about the importance of our work, before debuting the composition.

Our first year’s performance featured piano and flute duets, electronic experiences, and even a photosynthesis rap. The performance was well attended and the concert was even broadcast via public television to over 40,000 households in central Illinois.

Some of the end results were surprising, and perhaps not what the scientists had imagined. However, transforming data into music attached more emotion to the science, and proved a fantastic way to highlight the importance of the plant sciences.

Going Further

Thanks to the success of this project, we are expanding the collaboration into a yearly event. Like any good concert, we are trying to create an integrated experience from the time you sit down to the time you applaud. Think of it as a cross between a TED talk and a good movie. I hope to keep you updated with how it turns out in the fall.

But music can’t just be written about! If you’ve enjoyed the highlights video above and have an hour to spare get the full experience here:

I hope that the project will illustrate what plants can do for us, and how we are using what we know about plants to not only fill textbooks, but to make the world a better place.

____________________________________________________________

About the Author

Postdoc Berkley Walker is a Research Associate with the United States Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service (USDA–ARS) at the University of Illinois. He received his undergraduate degree in microbiology from Brigham Young University and his PhD from Washington State University under Asaph Cousins. Berkley believes that a scientist’s j berkley walker ob is to find answers to big questions, then communicate them clearly to the public they serve. His current big problem is trying to understand why many crop plants are only able to use 2% of the sun’s energy to grow and what we might be able to do to improve that percentage. He investigates this problem using a combination of physiological measurements and modeling both in the lab and in the field. To improve science communication, Berkley founded the Sounds of Science Collaboration where plant scientists are paired with composers to produce original works of music from primary research data.

Aug 19

0

The Global Plant Council: now on Facebook!

By Isabel | ASPB, ASPS, Blog, EPSO, FESPB, GPC Community, Public Engagement, SAFV, Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society, SEB

Here at the Global Plant Council (GPC) we’re big fans of social media

– we’re even helping to develop a new social media platform just for plant scientists! As well as this blog, we also have two Twitter accounts: our main, English-language account is at @GlobalPlantGPC, to which myself (@lisaamartin1), Ruth (@plantscience), and GPC New Media Fellows Amelia (@AmeliaFrizell) and Sarah (@josesci) all contribute. Alternatively, if you speak Spanish we also have a Spanish-language account at @GPC_EnEspanol (operated by Ecuadorian-PhD-student-in-Germany Juan-Diego Santillana-Ortiz; @yjdso, who kindly translates our tweets).

We find Twitter a great way to share links, news, journal articles and conference updates, while also networking with the global plant science community. Join over 1000 other plant scientists and enthusiasts and follow us, if you’re not already!

If you’re not sure where to start with Twitter, Mary Williams from ASPB (@PlantTeaching) has written a great two-part blog (we feature in Part 1! And here’s Part 2) that will help you get started and understand the ‘twetiquette’ of tweeting, especially from conferences.

However, we’ve never had a Facebook page – until now!

Although Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site across the globe, the way we use it has evolved dramatically since its inception in 2004. ‘Thefacebook’ as it was first known, was famously founded by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg as a way for his fellow students to view and comment on photographs of their dorm-mates. Initially restricted to Harvard, the website soon expanded to universities across the US, then the world, and now almost anyone can use it, even without an academic email address.

But Facebook has moved on from its early days and it’s now not all about ‘poking’ your friends (remember that?!). Now worth billions of dollars, Facebook has morphed into an all-encompassing platform for both recreation and business. While many people still use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, share photos and status updates, it’s also increasingly being used to share news, articles and opinions, to play games, form groups or communities, and as a tool for companies and organizations to interact with and advertise to customers or members.

At the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Prague in June, I heard several scientists extolling the benefits of social media, particularly – and perhaps unsurprisingly – in the Education and Outreach sessions. I was particularly interested to repeatedly hear the message that Facebook is a very useful tool for science communication and outreach – so we’ve decided to try it!

Why bother with Facebook as well as other social media channels?

Having only ever used Facebook for personal uses, Sarah and I asked some prolific social media users for their advice on starting and using a Facebook page, and in answer to the question, “Why should we bother with Facebook?”, the overwhelming message was clear: Facebook is used by more, different people.

Compared to Twitter, which has around 316 million users, Facebook reached its 1 billionth account in 2012, and while the people we spoke to find that most of their Twitter followers are from English-speaking countries, their Facebook visitors represent a much broader range of geographic locations and languages. Furthermore, unlike setting up and maintaining a website, it’s free to set up Facebook pages or groups, so some organizations only exist on social media. By setting up a Facebook page for the GPC, we should, in theory, be able to interact with more people than we would with just our Twitter accounts and blog, thus we will be able to share and promote plant science all over the world more effectively and to a greater diversity of people.

If you’re a Facebook user, please go to www.facebook.com/GlobalPlantGPC and give us a ‘like’!

If you’re attending our SEB Plant Section Symposium on Stress Resilience, you can also let us know by joining our Facebook event! (Please note however, that saying you’re coming to the meeting on Facebook is not the same as registering! You’ll need to do that here.)

Here’s a list of some of our Member Organizations who also have a presence on Facebook. Let us know if there are any other pages we should ‘like’! We’re also interested to hear from you if you have any thoughts about using social media, or suggestions of content you would like to see on Facebook. How do you use Twitter and Facebook, and how does your use of these channels differ, if at all? Please comment below!

GPC Member Organizations on Facebook

Jul 31

0

James Wong: Plant Geeks Will Save The World!

By Isabel | Blog, Interviews

James Wong trained as a botanist at Kew Gardens in London, UK, before embarking on a wide and varied career encompassing broadcasting, writing and garden design. He demonstrates his passion for plants in every strand of his work, and is making a significant contribution towards raising the profile of horticulture and the plant sciences within the UK. He took some time out of his busy schedule to speak to Amelia at the Global Plant Council.

James qualified with a Masters in Ethnobotany; the study of how people use plants, in 2006. This branch of the plant sciences is very relevant to tackling pressing issues such as food security and conservation.

Plants have provided humanity with essentially every aspect of our sustenance and material culture for millennia. Being a fusion of anthropology and botany, ethnobotany is vital to understanding everything we are and everything we do.

Humanity relies on an incredibly narrow range of plants to meet its needs, with just 3 crops providing up to 50% of our sustenance. This means civilization has pinned its future on just 0.00006% of the world’s edible plants!

With threats like climate change and a growing global population, it is simply not feasible to continue to marginalise 99.99994% of our crops. Learning about how to grow, prepare and eat those other plants is where the work of ethnobotanists is vital.

This is just one example of how ethnobotany is essential in helping combat some of the biggest threats our species are facing in the next century. Plant geeks will indeed save the world.

To meet the needs of a growing population, many resources are currently focused on increasing productivity of our large scale farming systems. However, in his most recent book, Grow for Flavour, James explores how we can increase the nutritional quality of home-grown produce. Could small-scale food production such as personal allotments or gardens have any role to play in our future food production systems?

In short, no. My tiny urban garden is just 6x6m, and there is no way that it is ever going to make a significant contribution to my calorie intake.

However (and this is a big however), even in this tiny space I can get access to a range of fruit and vegetables that could make an important contribution towards certain micronutrients in my diet. Many of these, including key phytonutrients, are not found in the limited range of crops grown commercially, at least in large quantities.

Green Zebra tomatoes are a good source of tomatidine. Photo credit: J https://www.flickr.com/photos/florence_craye/2953736794/in/photolist-5v1F3s-6Pshmn-8 Used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Green Zebra tomatoes are a good source of tomatidine.
Photo credit: J Used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

For example tomatidine, a chemical found in green tomatoes, may help improve muscle tone and reduce atrophy according to some studies. It is not really found in any supermarket produce, yet I can easily grow 10 kgs of tasty, tomatidine-rich fruit like ‘Green Zebra’ each summer. Popped in the freezer they could provide me with an important source of this phytonutrient year round that would otherwise be almost totally absent in my diet.

Home gardens can make significant financial sense too, removing cost as a barrier to nutrient availability.

The garden design studio, Amphibian Designs, was co-founded by James in 2008. “I have always been fascinated by plants and I feel that designing with them helps me express that.” This fascination has led the studio to win four Royal Horticultural Society medals for its designs, including two gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. Gardening is perhaps something we might associate more with art and creativity than science. However, James finds that: “creating spaces with plants and arranging them to express an idea allows me to better understand their botany.” Furthermore, having a scientific rather than arts background can be advantageous in design.

I have no formal design training and find this actually allows me more creative freedom! I rarely know the design rules and conventions, so I don’t feel I need to slavishly devote my works to them. There is an awful lot of assumed knowledge and entrenched ideas in horticulture, much of which has no factual basis, and being an outsider means you get to circumvent all that.

Engaging the public with the plant sciences is becoming increasingly important yet the perception that plants are boring can be difficult to overcome. Could gardens and horticulture provide a way to approach this problem?

Absolutely. Humans instinctively find plants beautiful. Sadly, I do think UK horticulture has done a rather good job of suppressing this instinct in many people by holding up a singular, historical ideal as the dominant mode of what a ‘proper’ garden should be. Between the rustic woven willow and stately home symbolism, it can be very easy for many people (like me) to not associate themselves with gardening. Would food, fashion, music, art or film limit themselves to such as singular ideal? Of course not, and that explains their far more broad-based appeal.

One of the most popular stands I saw at Chelsea Flower Show this year was for the European Space Agency, and represented how plants would be grown in space to feed astronauts and fuel interplanetary discovery. The look of wonder in faces of the kids (of all ages) as they wandered through spoke volumes. What an amazing way to engage kids with science.

So, we can’t leave without asking one final question: any tips for the budding gardeners amongst our readers?

Plants always grow and look best when planted to echo how they would naturally grow in the wild. Doing so means you will have less work, healthier plants and a perfectly matching aesthetic almost every time. Google image your favourite plants in their wild habitat and try your best to match them. The rest will take care of itself!

Education and Outreach Archives - Page 2 of 3 - The Global Plant Council

The importance of botanic gardens in the 21st century

Research

Ex situ conservation

In situ conservation

Education and recreation

In conclusion

International Year of Pulses 2016 – join the movement!

Flowers of the Global Plant Council

International Year of Soils

The Sound of Science

James Wong: Plant Geeks Will Save The World!

Bronce Sponsor

Are you an early-career researcher?

Popular Within Last Week

Popular Within Last Month

Recent publications

Search

Search