Boots On The Ground Conservation

plant

Biodiversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands

Scientists have finished a global empirical study that suggests that preservation of plant biodiversity is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands.

Diverse ecosystems are crucial climate change buffer

Preserving diverse plant life will be crucial to buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in in the world's drylands, according to a new landmark study.

Local Genotype Seed - Can be too Local

A scientist from the University of Melbourne is the latest to call for a change in paradigm. If we want to maximise diversity and the ability of plants to adapt we should be encouraging mixing of ‘genotypes’. That is, including seed that has travelled a few miles may be better.

Plants Behave ... and Remember

“I think most people regard plants as being pretty unresponsive and stuck in one place,” laments ecologist Richard Karban of the University of California, Davis. “Now, animals, they’re interestingbecause they can change and act in response to their environment.” It’s a dichotomy Karban doesn’t accept for one second.

Smoke Produces Larger Seedlings

Ecologists have identified a second way in which smoke benefits fire-dependent plants.  We know that smoke induces seeds to germinate. Now it has been shown that chemicals in smoke called karrikins (after "karrik," the Noongar word for "smoke") makes plants more sensitive to lower levels of reddish light, and triggers seeds not only to sprout, but to grow with thicker, sturdier stems.

A chemical ‘smoke signal' enables seeds and seedlings to better ‘see' the light and to adapt their growth to the new conditions, according to researchers at The University of Western Australia.