̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Botanic Garden

Botanic Gardens must team up to save wild plants from extinction

jg533 — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:01:55 +0000

A major study of botanic gardens around the world has revealed their struggles with one fundamental aim: to safeguard the world’s most threatened plants from extinction.

Researchers analysed a century’s worth of records - from 1921 to 2021 - from fifty botanic gardens and arboreta currently growing half a million plants, to see how the world’s living plant collections have changed over time.

̽��ֱ��results suggest that the world’s living collections have collectively reached peak capacity, and that restrictions on wild plant collecting around the world are hampering efforts to gather plant diversity on the scale needed to study and protect it.

There is little evidence that institutions are managing to conserve threatened plants within collections, on a global scale, despite accelerating rates of elevated extinction risk.

̽��ֱ��findings imply that tackling the loss of biodiversity has not been prioritised across the world’s botanic gardens as a collective - a fact the researchers say must be urgently addressed.

Curator of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden Professor Samuel Brockington, who led the work, said: “A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants, and to make them available for research and future reintroduction into the wild.”

In their report, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the researchers say the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has effectively halved the level at which plants are being collected from the wild, and also created obstacles to the international exchange of plants.

Brockington, who is also Professor of Evolution in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, said: “ ̽��ֱ��impact of the Convention on Biological Diversity is a remarkable demonstration of the power and value of international agreements. But it seems to be preventing individual botanic gardens from working with many globally threatened plant species that we could help save from extinction.”

Collective thinking

As much as 40% of the world’s plant diversity is at elevated risk of extinction. Acceptance that individual collections have limited capacity to single-handedly prevent species extinction demands a rethink as to how they collaborate to store and safeguard diversity in living collections.

̽��ֱ��researchers say it will be vital for the living collections to be considered as a ‘meta-collection’ in future: only by working closely together will the world’s botanic gardens be able to hold the range of plants needed to make a meaningful contribution to conservation efforts. This will include sharing data and expertise and supporting the development of new collections in the global south, where much of the world’s biodiversity is located.

̽��ֱ��researchers point out that some individual institutions, like the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, have successfully targeted and measurably conserved threatened conifer species. Similarly, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has established numerous global conservation consortia. However, these initiatives are the exception.

Wild decline

Plants must be regularly replaced or propagated within living collections: the average lifetime of a specimen is just 15 years. But the team’s analysis found that the number of wild-origin plants - those collected in the wild - in the collections peaked in 1993 and has been in decline ever since.

“It is certainly not getting any easier to sustain the diversity of our collections. This is especially true for wild-collected plants, and they’re the most valuable for us in terms for supporting research, and in finding solutions to the twin challenges of climate change and global biodiversity loss,” said Brockington.

Weather worries

As climate change alters growing conditions in different regions of the world, it will become more challenging for individual botanic gardens to continue to grow such a diverse range of species.

Brockington said: “Climate change affects our work directly by altering local weather conditions - we’ve already seen record-breaking temperatures in Cambridge in recent years. That’s going to affect how well our plants survive, so we need to think rationally and collectively about the best locations to hold different species across the global network of living collections.”

On 25 July 2019, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden reached 38.7⁰C - the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK at that time.

Diversity is key

Genetic diversity is important when it comes to protecting plants at risk of extinction, because it allows for breeding populations of species that can adapt to future challenges.

̽��ֱ��more individual plants of a particular species in a collection, the greater the genetic diversity is likely to be.

̽��ֱ��team says data from the International Conifer Conservation Programme, run by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, shows that living collections can make a valuable contribution to conservation efforts - given the right resource and focus. By distributing threatened species across a network of safe sites, the trees are grown where they grow best, and as a whole they represent a strong sample of the genetic diversity of this important group.
Ethical collecting

Last year, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden advertised for a new ‘Expedition Botanist’ to lead global plant-collection expeditions and contribute to vital conservation efforts.

Brockington says these expeditions remain vital to work to safeguard and study the world’s plant species. He suggests that collaborative collecting work is possible, in a fair and ethical way, that builds equitable international partnerships.

̽��ֱ��CBD is a global agreement, signed by 150 government leaders in 1992, dedicated to promoting sustainable development. It makes each country responsible for protecting its own biodiversity, and supports fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of that biodiversity.

There are 3,500 botanic gardens and arboreta worldwide. They exist so that scientists can study, conserve and provide access to the world’s plants, as well as showcasing them to the public.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a charity whose purpose is to mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

Reference: Cano, A. et al: ‘Insights from a century of data reveal global trends in ex situ living plant collections.’ Nature Ecology and Evolution, January 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02633-z

̽��ֱ��world’s botanic gardens must pull together to protect global plant biodiversity in the face of the extinction crisis, amid restrictions on wild-collecting, say researchers.

A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants.

Samuel Brockington

Howard Rice

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Report highlights ̽��ֱ��’s under-researched African collections

ta385 — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 06:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��'s collections include an estimated 350,000 artefacts, alongside natural history specimens and human/ancestral remains, from Africa, according to a new report aiming to promote further research, collaboration and engagement, especially with African scholars and communities. ̽��ֱ��report emphasises that the labour and expertise of countless unnamed African people is hidden in the histories of these collections.

Scientists discover entirely new wood type that could be highly efficient at carbon storage

kjg45 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:14:49 +0000

Scientists from the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� and Jagiellonian ̽��ֱ��, Poland made the discovery while undertaking an evolutionary survey of the microscopic structure of wood from some of the world’s most iconic trees and shrubs. 

They found that Tulip Trees, which are related to magnolias and can grow over 30 metres (100 feet) tall, have a unique type of wood. This discovery may explain why the trees, which diverged from magnolias when earth's atmospheric CO₂ concentrations were relatively low, grow so tall and so fast. This opens new opportunities to improve carbon capture and storage in plantation forests by planting a fast-growing tree more commonly seen in ornamental gardens, or breeding Tulip Tree-like wood into other tree species.

̽��ֱ��discovery was part of an evolutionary survey of the microscopic structure of wood from 33 tree species from the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden’s Living Collections. ̽��ֱ��survey explored how wood ultrastructure evolved across softwoods (gymnosperms such as pines and conifers) and hardwoods (angiosperms including oak, ash, birch, and eucalypts). 

̽��ֱ��wood samples were collected from trees in the Botanic Garden in coordination with its Collections Coordinator. Fresh samples of wood, deposited in the previous spring growing season, were collected from a selection of trees to reflect the evolutionary history of gymnosperm and angiosperm populations as they diverged and evolved. 

Using the Sainsbury Laboratory's low temperature scanning electron microscope (cryo-SEM), the team imaged and measured the size of the nanoscale architecture of secondary cell walls (wood) in their native hydrated state.

Microscopy Core Facility Manager at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Dr Raymond Wightman, said: “We analysed some of the world’s most iconic trees like the Coast Redwood, Wollemi Pine and so-called 'living fossils' such as Amborella trichopoda, which is the sole surviving species of a family of plants that was the earliest still existing group to evolve separately from all other flowering plants.

“Our survey data has given us new insights into the evolutionary relationships between wood nanostructure and the cell wall composition, which differs across the lineages of angiosperm and gymnosperm plants. Angiosperm cell walls possess characteristic narrower elementary units, called macrofibrils, compared to gymnosperms.” 

̽��ֱ��researchers found the two surviving species of the ancient Liriodendron genus, commonly known as the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and Chinese Tulip Tree (Liriodendron chinense) have much larger macrofibrils than their hardwood relatives.

Hardwood angiosperm macrofibrils are about 15 nanometres in diameter and faster growing softwood gymnosperm macrofibrils have larger 25 nanometre macrofibrils. Tulip Trees have macrofibrils somewhere in between, measuring 20 nanometres.

Lead author of the research published in New Phytologist, Dr Jan Łyczakowski from Jagiellonian ̽��ֱ��, said: “We show Liriodendrons have an intermediate macrofibril structure that is significantly different from the structure of either softwood or hardwood. Liriodendrons diverged from Magnolia Trees around 30-50 million years ago, which coincided with a rapid reduction in atmospheric CO2. This might help explain why Tulip Trees are highly effective at carbon storage.”

̽��ֱ��team suspect it is the larger macrofibrils in this 'midwood' or 'accumulator-wood' that is behind the Tulip Trees’ rapid growth.

Łyczakowski added: “Both Tulip Tree species are known to be exceptionally efficient at locking in carbon, and their enlarged macrofibril structure could be an adaptation to help them more readily capture and store larger quantities of carbon when the availability of atmospheric carbon was being reduced. Tulip Trees may end up being useful for carbon capture plantations. Some east Asian countries are already using Liriodendron plantations to efficiently lock in carbon, and we now think this might be related to its novel wood structure.” 

Liriodendron tulipifera are native to northern America and Liriodendron chinense is a native species of central and southern China and Vietnam.

Łyczakowski said: “Despite its importance, we know little about how the structure of wood evolves and adapts to the external environment. We made some key new discoveries in this survey – an entirely novel form of wood ultrastructure never observed before and a family of gymnosperms with angiosperm-like hardwood instead of the typical gymnosperm softwood. 

“ ̽��ֱ��main building blocks of wood are the secondary cell walls, and it is the architecture of these cell walls that give wood its density and strength that we rely on for construction. Secondary cell walls are also the largest repository of carbon in the biosphere, which makes it even more important to understand their diversity to further our carbon capture programmes to help mitigate climate change.”

This research was funded by the National Science Centre Poland and ̽��ֱ��Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

Reference: Lyczakowski, J L and Wightman, R. "Convergent and adaptive evolution drove change of secondary cell wall ultrastructure in extant lineages of seed plants." July 2024, New Phytologist.  DOI: 10.1111/nph.19983

All cryo-SEM images from the wood survey are publicly available. 

Sowing seeds for sustainability

plc32 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 11:06:44 +0000

Finding homes for used toasters, recycling batteries and inspiring a fondness for secondhand fashion are just three of the sustainability challenges Cambridge students addressed in the 2024 Easter term edition of the Engage for Change project.

Four Cambridge researchers awarded prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grants

jg533 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:01:02 +0000

̽��ֱ��European Research Council (ERC) has announced today the award of 255 Advanced Grants to outstanding research leaders across Europe, as part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. Four ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researchers are amongst those to receive this prestigious and competitive funding.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s grant awardees are:

Professor Albert Guillén i Fàbregas in the Department of Engineering for his project Scaling and Concentration Laws in Information Theory.

Guillén i Fàbregas, who has previously received ERC Starting, Consolidator and Proof of Concept Grants, said: “I am truly delighted with the news that the ERC will continue to fund my research in information theory, which studies the mathematical aspects of data transmission and data compression.

“This project will broaden the theory to study arbitrary scaling laws of the number of messages to transmit or compress." Read more about Professor Guillén i Fàbregas' project here.

Professor Beverley Glover in the Department of Plant Sciences and Director of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden, for her project Convergent evolution of floral patterning through alternative optimisation of mechanical parameter space.

Glover said: “This funding will enable us to explore how iridescent colour evolved repeatedly in different flowers. We think it will shed new light on evolution itself, as we think about the development of iridescence structure from a mechanical perspective, focusing on the forces acting as a petal grows and the mechanical properties of the petal tissue.

“It's only possible for me to do this work because of the amazing living collection at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden, and I'm thrilled that the ERC is keen to support it."

Professor Ian Henderson in the Department of Plant Sciences for his project Evolution of the Arabidopsis Pancentromere.

Henderson said: “This project seeks to investigate enigmatic regions of the genome called the centromeres, using the model plant Arabidopsis. These regions play a deeply conserved role in cell division yet paradoxically are fast evolving.

“I am highly honoured and excited to be awarded an ERC Advanced grant. ̽��ֱ��advent of long-read sequencing technology makes addressing these questions timely. ̽��ֱ��ERC’s long-term support will allow us to capitalise on these advances, build new collaborations, and train postdoctoral researchers.”

Professor Paul Lane in the Department of Archaeology, for his project Landscape Historical Ecology and Archaeology of Ancient Pastoral Societies in Kenya.

Lane said: “Pastoralism has been an extraordinarily resilient livelihood strategy across Africa. This project provides an excellent opportunity to reconstruct how East Africa’s pastoralists responded to significant climate change in the past, and to draw lessons from these adaptations for responding to contemporary climate crises in a region that is witnessing heightened water scarcity and loss of access to critically important grazing lands.”

“This project will allow us to utilise the department’s world-leading archaeological science laboratories and expertise to answer crucial questions about past patterns of mobility, dietary diversity, climatic regimes and food security among East African pastoralists over the last fifteen hundred years. This has never been attempted before for this time period.” Read more about Professor Lane's project here.

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “Many congratulations to Albert, Beverley, Ian and Paul on receiving these prestigious and highly competitive awards. It is fantastic that their ambitious, cutting-edge research will be supported by the European Research Council, marking them as outstanding European research leaders.

“Now that the UK is an associated country to Horizon Europe I encourage other Cambridge researchers to also consider applying to the ERC and other Horizon Europe programmes.”

President of the European Research Council Professor Maria Leptin said: “Congratulations to the 255 researchers who will receive grants to follow their scientific instinct in this new funding round. I am particularly happy to see more mid-career scientists amongst the Advanced Grant winners this time. I hope that it will encourage more researchers at this career stage to apply for these grants.”

̽��ֱ��ERC is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. ̽��ֱ��255 ERC Advanced Grants, totalling €652 million, support cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields from medicine and physics to social sciences and humanities.

̽��ֱ��European Commission and the UK Government have reached an agreement on the association of the UK to Horizon Europe, which applies for calls for proposals implementing the 2024 budget and onwards.

̽��ֱ��ERC Advanced Grants target established, leading researchers with a proven track-record of significant achievements. In recent years, there has been a steady rise in mid-career researchers (12-17 years post-PhD), who have been successful in the Advanced Grants competitions, with 18% securing grants in this latest round.

̽��ֱ��funding provides leading senior researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs.

Many congratulations to Albert, Beverley, Ian and Paul... It is fantastic that their ambitious, cutting-edge research will be supported by the European Research Council, marking them as outstanding European research leaders.

Anne Ferguson-Smith

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Unveiling Darwin's treasures: specimens from historic voyage make television debut

jek67 — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:36:57 +0000

200-year-old plant specimens from the Voyage of the Beagle, held in the ̽��ֱ��'s herbarium archives, make their television debut.

̽��ֱ��artist who made ink from Newton's Apple Tree

lw355 — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:11:26 +0000

Nabil Ali is discovering the natural colours hidden within the berries, blooms and bark found in the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden – including from a very special tree.

Inaugural Sustainability Showcase celebrates environmental achievements across Cambridge

jek67 — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 12:59:52 +0000

Departing from the traditional format of separate award ceremonies, the showcase brought together numerous sustainability engagement programs administered by the Environmental Sustainability Team (EST), along with initiatives from other departments within the university.

Dr Sally Pidgeon, Head of Environmental Sustainability at the EST, opened the showcase which celebrated the exceptional efforts of volunteers, staff, and students, with a particular focus on the Green Impact program.

A total of 43 awards were bestowed for outstanding contributions to sustainability, including an impressive 12 teams that achieved Platinum status. To earn Platinum recognition, teams had to successfully complete 80% of the Green Impact workbook, demonstrating their dedication to sustainable practices.

̽��ֱ��esteemed institutions and teams that attained Platinum status this year included Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press and Assessment Cape Town, Cancer Research UK, IMS-MRL, ̽��ֱ��Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, ̽��ֱ��Green Genies - DPHPC, Christ's College, Churchill College, Clare College, Gonville & Caius College, Robinson College, St John's College, and Wolfson College.

Additionally, nine teams achieved Excellence status, which involved undertaking a seven-month project centred around a specific sustainability theme of their choosing. These projects encompassed a wide range of sustainability aspects and addressed various challenges.

Some notable projects included:

̽��ֱ��Botanic Gardens: Exploring methods to reduce energy demands in the uninsulated, Grade II listed building at 1 Brookside.
Jesus and Churchill Colleges' Seed Library: Establishing a seed library to promote sustainable agriculture.
Lucy Cavendish College: Creating a Living Lab for Green Nudges to encourage sustainable behaviours.
Murray Edwards College: Implementing the Student Sustainability Leaders Programme.
Robinson College: Enhancing sustainability in guest supplies at the college.

Within the Green Impact program, teams also had the opportunity to nominate colleagues, students, and projects for 'Special Awards' to recognize exceptional contributions. Many of these individuals voluntarily dedicated significant amounts of time and effort to promote sustainability within their respective colleges, institutions, departments, or workplaces.

̽��ֱ��winners of these special awards were announced as follows:

Sustainability Hero:
- Winner: Ivan Higney, Darwin College
- Highly Commended: Oscar Holgate, Wolfson College
Innovation for Engagement:
- Winner: Animal agriculture, Lucy Cavendish College
- Highly Commended: Sustainability Thinking Space, Wolfson College
Environmental Improvement:
- Winner: Clare College Braeside
- Highly Commended: Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press and Assessment, South Africa Biodiversity Hikes
Community Action:
- Winner: Darwin College, Project Second Life
Student Leadership Award:
- Winner: Deidre Boodoosingh, Wolfson College
- Highly Commended: Lauren Court, Girton College

Furthermore, seven LEAF awards were presented to lab-based teams as part of the newly established program. ̽��ֱ��LEAF awards recognize outstanding sustainability efforts in laboratories that reduce the carbon footprint of their work.

You can read more about the Sustainability Showcase from the EST team here.

̽��ֱ��Environmental Sustainability Team at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge hosted its first-ever Sustainability Showcase on 21st June at Wolfson College.

Gemma Dunsmure and Emily Jones from the Green Genies – ̽��ֱ��Department of Public Health and Primary Care, winners of a Platinum Green Impact Award

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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