Rethinking Plants: the Science behind Sustainable Resources

Find out more about the cutting-edge research into plants being carried out at the University of Dundee and the James Hutton Institute. In a series of short talks from scientists and researchers, find out about rainforests, crop systems and why certain plants could help save the planet.

This event is part of the exhibition "Botanical Conversation. The Science and Beauty of Plants", running at the Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee until 31 March 2018.

Programme:

Geoff Squire - Crop Diversification – the solution for sustainable food and agriculture

Scotland relies on very few species of grain crops and grass to sustain its agriculture. In contrast, the diverse range of food consumed here is mostly grown elsewhere and imported, at great environmental cost. The future lies in diversifying our agricultural fields and landscapes to produce a wide range of edible, nutritious products locally. For inspiration, this talk will look at past innovations and current biotechnological solutions.

Pete Iannetta – Greater inclusion of legumes to realise natural chemical cycling in cropping systems

With the development of man-made nitrogenous fertilisers came great increases in absolute levels of crop production, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss. Legumes are a class of crop plants which can need no fertiliser – they acquire their entire nitrogen requirements from the air, and deliver the most nutritious of food stuffs whilst also benefiting diversity and soil qualities, including natural chemical cycling. What is there not to not to like about legumes?

Ali Karley - DIVERSify-ing for sustainability using cereal-legume ‘plant teams’

Increasing the diversity of crop systems could improve crop yields while increasing sustainability; species-rich systems often show higher productivity than monocultures, with reduced pest and disease severity, and greater resilience to stress. This talk will give a brief overview of the EU-funded Horizon2020 project DIVERSify, which adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to develop methods and tools for crop improvement using cereal-legume plant teams.

Isabelle Colas - The wonder of Plant Meiosis

Since the discovery of Meiosis by the German biologist Oscar Hertwig in 1876, scientists have been fascinated by this mechanism essential for reproduction and inheritance. Although often studied in humans, meiosis is also essential for plants and the creation of better crops. This talk will showcase advances in microscopy to study meiosis and discuss the importance of this research for food production.

Mark Cutler - How fragile are tropical forests? Monitoring two decades of change in SE Asian forests

Globally, almost half of all remaining tropical forest is allocated for timber production, but little is known about the health of forests that are re-growing after logging. This talk describes a project trying to understand how these fragile ecosystems recover from disturbance and their resilience to short-term climate shocks, such as the recent El Nino drought. With colleagues at other universities Mark has been monitoring the forests of Sabah in Malaysia for over 20 years to build a picture of the health of these forests from the individual tree up to the whole ecosystem.

Join us in the Lamb Gallery beforehand for some faba bean ale!