Half of species found by great plant hunters
01/02/2012
A report by Robert Scotland and John Wood of this department in collaboration with scientists from Earthwatch Institute, Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Missouri Botanical Garden showing that more than 50% of the world's plant species have been discovered by 2% of plant collectors has been published this week in a Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper.
Oxford University have issued a press release providing commentary and background information.
Daniel P. Bebber, Mark A. Carine, Gerrit Davidse, David J. Harris, Elspeth M. Haston, Malcolm G. Penn, Steve Cafferty, John R. I. Wood and Robert W. Scotland
Big hitting collectors make massive and disproportionate contribution to the discovery of plant species
Proc R Soc B 2012 : rspb.2011.2439v1-rspb20112439 (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2439).
First land plants chilled the Earth
01/02/2012
In a paper publishsed in Nature Geosciences today Liam Dolan and co-workers demonstrated that the evolution of the first land plants caused dramatic climate change 450 million years ago.
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v5/n2/full/ngeo1390.html
Kirsty Monk joins forces with local school to bring science to life for children
31/01/2012
Kirsty Monk, in collaboration with Mrs Geerthi Ahilan, Science co-ordinator at St Ebbe’s C.E. (Aided) Primary School have won a Royal Society Partnership Grant, worth £2896 for their study, "War and Peace: Species interactions on Hogacre Common".
Children from all years from foundation stage to year 6 will be involved in this exciting project to assess and interrogate the biodiversity on and ecosystem services provided by hogacre common. This 11 acre plot of old private sports field has been leased to the community by Corpus Christi College and contains areas of grassland (managed and unmanaged), scrubland, woodland and waterways. In collaboration with Low Carbon Oxford, St Ebbe's Primary School aims to convert this diverse area into a rich community resource. By partnering with Kirsty Monk, the children will experience all aspects of an ecological investigation, from planning, sampling and data collection to data manipulation, analysis and conclusion drawing. This project will meet the learning requirements of all ages through stratified tasks, incorporating art, mathematics and literacy as well as science, and involving partnership with New Hinksey Primary school and Grandpont Childrens Centre, both of which are part of the same community. This will be an invaluable project to both the schools and the local community who will benefit from a greater understanding of the biodiversity of the common and the enhancement resulting from the restoration and conservation aspects of the project.
Maize gene could lead to bumper harvest
16/01/2012
The discovery of a new ‘provisioning’ gene in maize plants that regulates the transfer of nutrients from the plant to the seed could lead to increased crop yields and improve food security.
Long-running work carried out by researchers in this department in collaboration with researchers at Warwick University on the MEG1 gene of maize has just been published in Current Biology:
Liliana M. Costa, Jing Yuan, Jacques Rouster, Wyatt Paul, Hugh Dickinson, and Jose F. Gutierrez-Marcos . (2012) Maternal Control of Nutrient Allocation in Plant Seeds by Genomic Imprinting.
10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.059.
This story has been reported in press releases from both Oxford:
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120113.html
And Warwick:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/discovery_of_plant/
Lizzie Cooke wins a prize at the Young Systematics Forum 2011
06/12/2011
Congratulations to Lizzie Cooke for winning second prize for her presentation at the Young Systematics Forum 2011 held at the Natural History Museum, London. This event was attended by 150 delegates from 20 countries.Details of YSF can be seen at: http://www.systass.org/ysf/
Robert Scotland elected as next President of the Systematics Association
06/12/2011
Robert Scotland has just been elected the next President of the Systematics Association to run from 2012-2014.