CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

25 future novel threats facing UK biodiversity

There requires a greater emphasis on forecasting and critical evaluation, and less dawdling on existing, well studied issues: in summary, this is the main recommendation made by 35 senior representatives from UK academia, environmental management & policy, and scientific journalism. 

Using a technique called 'horizon scanning.' They have established a list of 25 future novel threats facing UK biodiversity. This list includes toxic nanomaterials, potential invasiveness of new artifical life species and biomimetic robots or genetically engineered viruses. Although they only covered the UK situation, most of the 25 treats can be applied to other parts of the world.

Ug99: One Year On

An opportunity here, for me to recap on a post I wrote back in January '07. Puccinia graminis strain Ug99 has once again hit the headlines and it isn't good news. The situation in outline is that the Ug99 strain of black rust fungus readily attacks wheat plants, as it resists the most popular rust-resistance genes that are used in modern wheat. It has been steadily spreading northwards from its point of origin in Uganda since 1999 (Uganda and the year 1999 provided the name). Experts were predicting that unless measures were taken, the fungus would find its way into the fertile bread-basket regions of South Asia, via the Arabian peninsula. Potential damage to agriculture in the region was estimated at some 3 billion US dollars per year. In his article  for CAB Reviews, Ravi Singh of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) highlights the threats of Ug99 migration. Follow this link to download the PDF.

This is still the case but as New Scientist reports, Cyclone Gonu which hit the Arabian peninsula last June could have pushed up the predicted arrival of Ug99 spores in Iran and Pakistan by up to two years. Strong storm winds blew north, not north-west as expected and could have carried airborne rust spores with them. Monitoring of the fungus in Pakistan is reportedly poor, so any such movement might not be apparent straight away.

Coping with extinction: can plants cope with the loss of their dispersers?

In an era of widespread deforestation and habitat loss, we hear much about the problems that this causes for wildlife. The plights of orangutans, gorillas, lemurs and other charismatic species as they lose the forests on which they depend, and of apes and other wild animals as they are hunted in Africa for bushmeat, are often featured on wildlife programmes, and the protection of these animals, and the forests in which they live, is a concern of many.

But what is perhaps less well known to the public is the other side of the coin: just as wildlife depends on the survival of habitats such as tropical forests, so the health of the forests is in turn dependent on the animals living in them. The trees and other forest flora often depend on particular animals for aspects of their life-cycles such as pollination and seed dispersal, and if those animals are lost through hunting, or because the forest becomes too fragmented for them to survive, this can have profound effects on the ecosystem of those forest areas which do remain.

Organic biofuels?

While discussing biofuels with a colleague the other week, I wondered whether there was any demand for organically grown biofuels, as people interested in protecting the environment are likely to be interested both in biofuels and in organic agriculture. Not long afterwards I came across a record in CAB Abstracts for an article¹ on the life cycle assessment of energy crops, which discussed the environmental impact of different ways of growing fuel crops. It concluded that organic farming was preferred to 'integrated' production for maize and soyabeans, that it had both advantages and disadvantages for cereals and oilseed rape, that  extensive grassland was the lowest-impact source of biogas and (together with sugarbeet)  bioethanol, and that there was no preferable crop for biodiesel.

National Invasive Weed Awareness Week in USA

Sunday marks the beginning of the 9th annual "National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week" over in Washington D.C., USA. Looking at the packed agenda, the week looks to be well supported by all the players in US invasive species research, control and policy sectors.   

If you can not make any of the meetings and are interested in NIWAW 9 or invasive species in general, then check the blogsphere and the NIWAW website for updates.

Thanks to Jennifer of the Invasive Species Weblog for this heads-up.

From Kenya with love...

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander is urging UK consumers to buy Kenyan flowers today. Given the unrest in the country, flower producers have had to work extra hard to ensure flowers reached the market in time for Valentine’s Day.

Kenya is a leading exporter of cut flowers, roses in particular, and the UK is one of the world’s largest importers. Douglas Alexander goes on to say that the “flowers flown in from Kenya aren’t grown in heated greenhouses so they use less energy than most of those produced in Europe”. You can read more about a comparison of emissions from floriculture industries in a 2007 report by Adrian Williams (Cranfield University) entitled a Comparative Study of Cut Roses for the British Market Produced in Kenya and the Netherlands.

Year of the Ratte

As editor of Potato Abstracts I thought it only fitting to let you know that the UN has designated 2008 as International Year of the Potato. It’s also Chinese Year of the Rat - hence my hilarious pun on Ratte - a small potato with a nutty flavour!

For some really interesting potato factoids then visit the UN site and also that of the International Potato Centre (Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP)) which maintains collections of 100 wild relatives and 3800 cultivated potato varieties. The British Potato Council has some great recipes to celebrate the Year of the Potato, and I almost forgot to mention it will soon be National Chip Week!

As 2007 was not exactly the best of years for potato growing in the UK, with floods causing huge amounts of damage and the general furore surrounding GM field trials, let’s hope 2008 brings a little more promise for the humble spud. Why not try a few more varieties and experience a little more of what the potato has to offer or even better grow a few of your own!

Want to know more about potatoes? Visit CAB Abstracts where more than 1800 records are added each year on potatoes alone

Want to know more about the history of the potato? Read John Reader’s Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History out on 20 February

Biofuel – the burning issues

The development of biofuel has been hailed as a sustainable way to combat dependency on declining oil reserves, but a new study suggests there are substantial obstacles to large-scale deployment of biofuels. It is still an open question whether biofuel can meet a significant proportion of the world’s energy needs, say John Fike and co-authors in a paper in CAB Reviews. There are numerous practical questions about biomass systems, from feedstocks to logistics to pretreatment/process technologies, to be addressed. While policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions may support biofuel, other environmental impacts are also of concern, say Fike and his colleagues at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The cost of hauling the feedstock to the refinery is a key issue, and so a high proportion of farms within a given radius of the refinery would have to commit to producing the feedstock, as a need to transport the feedstock over long distances would make bioenergy production uneconomic. The distance of the refineries from the energy user is also an important factor. There are many logistic and socio-economic issues that will need to be resolved along with the purely technical issues, say the Virginia Tech team.

Policy is critical, and if US policies were to create a value for carbon sequestration, this would of course change the economics of bioenergy production. Tax levels on biofuel relative to fossil fuel are another central issue. Fike and his co-authors question whether the US government would allow a switch from food to bioenergy production to allow large increases in food prices, as some models have predicted. Some residents may oppose the dramatic industrialisation of the countryside that comes with bioenergy, but others may feel that this is a price worth paying for renewable energy.

The paper, Challenges for deploying dedicated, large-scale, bioenergy systems in the USA by John Fike, David Parrish, Jeffrey Alwang and John Cundiff appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources2, No. 064, 28 pp.

Review of 2007

Happy New Year and a big thank you to all those who subscribe or read our blog.

It was a good 2007 for the hand picked ... and carefully sorted with a full calendar year of blogging under our belt, turning 1 year old on 2nd November. We posted 167 articles on a variety of topics and had one of our posts, "Bluetongue virus:knocking at the door" by Robert Taylor, nominated for consideration towards the new edition of the Science Blogging Anthology, "Open Laboratory 2007".

Please read on for a monthly breakdown of all our posts.

Trade, biotechnology, biofuels, ethics: some issues that the sugar industry is thinking about

Having more or less recovered from the flu mentioned in Sarah's blog entry of 22nd November (no, I wasn't complaining I was dying -- quite the opposite; I kept expecting to be fully recovered the next day and then finding I wasn't), I went last week to the International Sugar Organization's annual international seminar (see the ISO events page) in London, featuring two days of presentations about subjects related to the economics of the sugar industry. This was more interesting than you might think for a non-economist like me -- many different subjects affect or are affected by economics, and even the presentation about the changing face of sugar futures trading was quite well-explained.

The superfood of the future – Chenopodium quinoa

You may or may not have heard of this already. It’s called quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) and it’s a pseudocereal with properties that have made it an attractive staple food to peoples since the Incas - it was cultivated as early as 3000 BC.
Nutritionally, quinoa is thought to be superior to cereal crops as it has a good amino acid balance, a protein content of 10-18%, and it is gluten free. On top of all this, it has been proposed by the FAO to offer food security for the future, particularly because it is hardy at high altitudes where maize will not grow.

Do you blog about peer reviewed research?

If so, the recent announcement from BPR3 (Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting) might be of interest to you and potentially increase the readership of your blog.

Needle cast diseases on Christmas trees

Christmas tree growers are advised to be on the lookout for needle infections by fungal pathogens causing discolouration and defoliation. Severe cases of needle drop not only decrease tree value, but result in poor tree health and vigour. Although most conifers are somewhat susceptible to needle cast diseases, certain varieties of Scots pine, Douglas-fir and Spruce growing in locations favourable for disease may be severely affected.

Gardening in Microgravity

Long-term space missions would need plants for recycling carbon dioxide and oxygen and producing food. However, growing plants in space is a tricky business – some of the basic signs of over- or under-watering (wilting and flopping) are simply not present in microgravity, and water does not spread through the soil as it would on Earth. Mary Musgrave of the University of Connecticut spells out some of the difficulties in a paper in CAB Reviews.

Microgravity also affects pollination, and the direction of airflow is critical for some species. Similarly, the debris from plants as they go through their normal life-cycle has the potential to block up ventilation systems. Harvesting seeds is also problematic.

The research area on space stations for growing plants have typically been very small (960 cm2), and none have yet been grown for consumption, and so there is much still to learn. Musgrave points out the flavour of plants will be affected by microgravity too. Small plants adapted to low light intensity and high carbon dioxide are being developed which would be appropriate for space travel.

The paper "Growing plants in space" by M.E. Musgrave appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2007, 2, No. 065, 9 pp.

Pine beetles continue marching east

If this press release is anything to go by, hard times in Canadian forestry are about to get harder. The Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) has been chomping its way through the lodgepole pines of British Columbia since a shortage of cold winters has allowed it to spread unchecked. The beetles spread the deadly "blue-stain" fungus, Ophiostoma minus, through the wood of the tree as they bore (in much the same manner as is Dutch-Elm Disease; in that case caused by Ophiostoma ulmi).

Controlled burns of forests in Alberta were planned, to halt the expansion of the epidemic out of BC, but wet weather has put that on hold. It'll be spring before new attempts can be made. Another warm winter could see the spread of the beetles further afield.

The Canadian Forest Service runs an excellent "Mountain Pine Beetle Program" site here, the introduction to which predicts "At the current rate of spread, 50 per cent of the mature pine will be dead by 2008 and 80 per cent by 2013." Clearly, these are nervous times for the forestry industry.

There's loads on the CAB Abstracts database concerning the MPB, Canadian forestry and the techniques of prescribed burning. If you're not a database subscriber, then you're in luck, as a good selection of abstracts on these subjects are free for you to view via Google Scholar, here - MPB and lodgepole pines in Canada.

Can Bt Maize Beat Down Mycotoxins?

Bt maize (which contains a toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis) is genetically engineered to limit damage from certain insect pests. Fungal infestation, which leads to mycotoxin contamination, is known to follow pest damage. So can the Bt toxin also help by reducing mycotoxins in maize?

Felicia Wu from the University of Pittsburgh examines the sometimes conflicting evidence in a paper in CAB Reviews. Aflatoxin is the most serious mycotoxin in terms of financial impact, and it appears that levels of this toxin are not consistently reduced in Bt maize in comparison to non-Bt maize, although future Bt maize varieties may have a more positive effect. However, fumonisin, another important mycotoxin, is reduced in almost all studies. Fumonisin is associated with oesophageal cancer and neural tube defects. Reducing fumonisin through Bt could have significant benefits in developing countries, especially where unprocessed maize is a key part of the diet, and so mycotoxins are present at levels which can health problems. It also could help them avoid losses in the export market through rejection of contaminated maize.

The paper, “Bt corn and impact on mycotoxins” appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2007, 2, No. 060, 8 pp.

Vote for the winner of the “Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting” icon contest

As mentioned in a previous article, there is growing debate in the blog sphere over the need for a means to identify the sources of science being reviewed or used as evidence by bloggers. Well, the authors of “Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting” or BP3 for short, devised an icon design competition for which CABI, along with other publishers have provided prizes for the winner of the competition. The entry deadline has now passed, the final three designs have been chosen and now BP3 need all interested bloggers and blog readers' help to vote on the winning design. So head across to BP3 and cast your vote for the icon that you wish to see at the top of posts which discuss peer-reviewed science <direct link>. The deadline for casting your vote is Monday 24th September. CABI would like to wish the best of luck to the final three designers.

Highlighting the use of evidence

I spotted this blog article on Friday morning and sent it on to one of my colleagues, and soon it was sent around all the blog team here at CABI. This whole topic of the use of an icon/logo to highlight the use of peer-reviewed evidence has caused a great deal of discussion and a mixture of feelings amongst the bloggers. I have given it a great deal of thought over the weekend and decided to report the issues and resulting discussions that have occurred.

Bamboo socks and bicycles

Is there no end to the usefulness of bamboo? They can now make bamboo socks that stop your feet smelling! The makers claim that they are softer and more durable than cotton and contain a natural odour-eating magic ingredient called “Bamboo-kin” - an anti-microbial agent that kills the organisms that create smelly feet. The cellulose product that results from boiling or steaming of mature bamboo poles can be used to make a biodegradable fabric – bamboo rayon – which has been used in China for a while, but only emerged in Western markets more recently (for examples of other bamboo clothing on the market see 'Bamboosa', 'Shirts of Bamboo' and 'Bamboo Clothes'. Bamboo is one of the world’s most sustainable crops, and what’s more it absorbs up to 5 times more CO₂ than an equivalent plantation of trees. The first eco-friendly socks to go on general sale in the UK will soon be available through supermarket chain Asda. So, are these set to be “one of the biggest fashion trends over the next decade”, as claimed by Ed Watson, spokesman for Asda’s clothing range George? Will the demand for bamboo products help save the world from global warming by fixing more CO₂?

Hug fat trees

The ancient tree hunt is on.  I heard a story on the radio this morning about a tree, the Fortingall Yew (Taxus baccata) in Perthsire, which is guestimated to be 5000 years old.  It was around when Stonehenge was built, had already been standing for 3000 years when the Romans invaded, and is thought to be the oldest living thing in Europe.
We, the public, are now being asked to help locate and record ancient trees (the UK is thought to have more than any other part of Europe) just like this.  The aim is to produce an official register, as there isn’t one at the moment, and treat these trees the way should be treated - as historical monuments. 

The ancient tree hunt began in 2004 and has collected more than 6000 records, with the aim of recording more than 100,000 trees by 2011.  Funding has been secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, amongst others, to help find and protect these important features of our heritage.  Ancient trees also play a vital ecological role, often supporting hundreds of different species.

Go here to get involved and find, measure and record ancient trees.  If a tree is old, fat and gnarled then you should record it.  You can start by hugging - 3 hugs is about right for an ancient oak. You can also search for ancient trees on this Woodland Trust database, to find out which ones you can easily visit.
For more info about the Fortingall Yew go here or here, and, if you have access, go to CAB Abstracts or the Forest Science Database (formerly TreeCD) - a search of the latter for ‘ancient’ and ‘tree’ gave 310 records.

Plants uproot and head North

Plants are moving northward to find cooler habitats, so it would seem that the blog I wrote earlier on human assisted migration might be moot – they’re doing it for themselves.

Using DNA fingerprinting techniques, a study by Inger Greve Alsos and her colleagues has found that ‘long-distance colonization of a remote arctic archipelago, Svalbard, has occurred repeatedly and from several source regions.’ In order to reach their destination, most plants have travelled more than 620 miles, probably arriving on drifting sea ice and the wind. However, species’ temperature requirements will restrict colonisation so, even if dispersal is unlimited, plants favouring cold conditions will have nowhere to go.

And this may all come sooner than expected.  The retreat of Arctic sea ice is predicted to accelerate rapidly, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in the US has predicted that ‘the Arctic Ocean could become nearly devoid of ice during summertime as early as 2040.’

It now also appears that seasons in the arctic are arriving much earlier than they once were, with spring an average of six to eight days earlier than 30 years ago, and the local organisms are acting accordingly, with earlier flowering and emergence.  Research by Toke Hoye from the University of Aarhus, Denmark has been published this week and finds that over time the ecosystem stability may be affected.  Species from southern latitudes will ‘establish themselves (in the region) and increase competition for food.’ So while more species are finding this region accessible, those already there may suffer and long term survival may be affected, and this could  as well as disruption of the food chain. See the BBC story.

So, it’s good news for the plants looking for new homes, not so good for the species already there, and hopeless for at least one of those, the Polar Bear, unless they too can adapt …

Clouds in my decaf

Whilst sourcing news for AgBiotechNet I came across a story about the genetic modification of coffee - I read on, intrigued. 

Why on earth would you want genetically modify coffee? Well, the problem is the relatively poor quality of decaf compared to that of fully leaded. During the traditional process of chemical decaffeination a large part of the aroma is lost thus leading to a reduction in overall quality. However, by genetically modifying the caffeine biosynthesis pathway a 'naturally decaffeinated ' coffee is produced with no lost aromas.

Climate change clock ticking for wild relatives

International Biodiversity Day is here, and CGIAR brings us news that climate change threatens the wild relatives of cultivated potatoes and peanuts. The CGIAR study warns that 61% of wild peanut and 12% of wild potato species could be made extinct over the next half century. This poses a problem for plant breeders and GM crop producers alike. Wild relatives are a vital source of genetic diversity for crop improvement and if that pool of resources is diminished, genes which confer resistance to pathogens for example, are lost.

Andy Jarvis of CGIAR explains "The vulnerability of a wild plant to climate change can depend on its ability to adapt by, for example, extending its range as warming in its native regions becomes too hot to handle. One reason wild peanut plants appear to be so vulnerable to climate change is they are largely found in flat lands and would have to migrate a long way to reach cooler climates, a predicament exacerbated by the fact that peanuts bury their seeds underground, a meter or less from the parent plant. That limits the speed at which seeds can move into more favorable climates. By contrast, plants in mountainous locations could theoretically survive by extending their range slightly up a slope, even by only a few meters, to find cooler weather."

Hunting both animals and plants

Many people are aware of the negative effects of hunting on the species that are being hunted, especially on large-bodied, slow-reproducing forest vertebrates, but have you ever considered the knock-on effects on the plant community in those same ecosystems? The latest issue of Biotropica (vol. 39, no. 3) features a special section on the ‘Pervasive consequences of hunting for tropical forests’, which looks at the consequences of hunting on seed dispersal and plant species composition.

Hunting levels have been increasing, especially over the last 50 years when the importance of hunting for subsistence has been increasingly outweighed by hunting for the market. Drs Carlos Peres and Erwin Palacios report that "The total extent of partially defaunated, but otherwise "pristine" tropical forests, is often severely underestimated. For example, subsistence hunters have access to most areas of lowland Amazonia, affecting even the core of many relatively remote nature and indigenous reserves". Several factors are contributing to the overexploitation of forest game. Dr Joseph Wright and his colleagues write "The weak economies of many tropical countries fail to provide sufficient jobs for their growing populations, while land-use change, improved infrastructure, and new technology facilitate commercial hunting." Land-use change, often resulting in fragmentation, brings hunters and their markets closer to previously remote forests, while improved infrastructure, for example building of roads for timber and mineral extraction, provides access to forest interiors and to distant urban markets. All of this leads to an increase in the return for time spent hunting.

Taking the sting out of nettles

A colleague has just told me that it's 'Be Nice to Nettles Week' - I know it may seem strange to celebrate the merits of such a commonplace plant but the humble nettle has many uses. I have sampled nettle soup and Cornish Yarg wrapped in nettles reputedly to encourage the cheese to ripen (although this also makes the cheese look very attractive). The leaves have a vast number of medicinal uses (once you've got beyond the sting!) whilst fibres from mature stems can be woven into cloth. Nettles are also a good source of natural dyes - green from the shoots and leaves and yellow from the roots.

A quick delve into CAB Abstracts revealed a huge 1080 records on Urtica dioica (an easy Latin name to remember as it really does 'urt when you get stung!) with papers ranging from the use of nettles in medicinal teas and in pig feeds through to increasing biodiversity in your garden.

'Be Nice to Nettles Week' runs from 16-27 May and includes a series of events which start tomorrow.

Disturbing Soil Has Disturbing Effects on Forest Carbon

Forests are seen as a major plank in trying to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate climate change. According to the rules of the Kyoto Protocol and of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, forestry can generate a sink for greenhouse gases that can contribute to meeting the national commitments to emissions reductions. However, as Robert Jandl of the Austrian Federal Office and Research Center for Forests and his colleagues point out, such as wetlands and peatlands may even be a source of greenhouse gases when they are afforested. How forests are managed also has important effects on how much carbon is absorbed.

Writing in CAB Reviews, Jandl and colleagues described how as part of the IUFRO Task Force on Carbon Sequestration they analysed the effects of harvesting, rotation length, thinning, fertilizer application and tree-species selection on carbon sequestration. All of these have an impact on the forest productivity and consequently on carbon sequestration in the ecosystem. In terms of carbon sequestration and its accounting in national greenhouse-gas budgets, ecosystem stability is highly rated. “Forests that are robust against disturbances up to a certain degree of severity are better suited for political commitments than stands of maximum productivity with a high risk of damages,” say Jandl and his colleagues. “Optimized forest management with regard to soil C sequestration should aim to secure a high productivity of the forest on the input side, and avoid soil disturbances as much as possible on the output side.”

The paper "Carbon sequestration and forest management" by Robert Jandl, Lars Vesterdal, Mats Olsson, Oliver Bens, Franz Badeck and Joachim Rock appears in CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2007, 2, No. 017.

Read the full review

And how would you like your flowers Madam?

Genetically modified? Yes, GM bouquets could be the future of floristry, with consumers demanding more choice in flower colour, Australian company Florigene are hoping to import and market their GM carnation Moonaqua™. The flower is the lightest shade in Florigene's Moonseries range being pale lilac in colour, created by modifying genes in the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway to enable production of delphinidin.

1000 diseases mapped - a challenge is issued

Over at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog Jeremy decided to lay down a challenge to us here at CABI - make it possible to view the changes in distribution over time. We'd like to explain a little more about the history of the maps - we began publishing Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases in 1942 and for the first 50 or so years the distributions were drawn onto the maps by hand. Historically, when a new edition of a map was published the idea was that old editions would be replaced by the new edition and the old edition was discarded - therefore, when we digitised the maps for the first time in April 2006, we also had the job of tracking down the old editions. We have managed to get a number of them (back 10 years or so) but there are older maps out there that we have to locate, clean up and then get digitised. Part of the digitisation process involves extracting the metadata that is locked up in the map, and constructing an abstract to accompany the new electronic version. It takes time... and money.

Now that the maps are digitised, the next stage is to look to do something similar to what has been suggested by Jeremy as well as other developments to make the maps more usable and useful in general - we have been looking at ways of doing this and there is certainly a lot of scope for development with the technology that is out there.

In regard to the suggestion of creating time series animations showing the changing distribution of pests and diseases - it's a great idea, but note that the maps are not revised on a regular basis but rather only if it has been brought to our attention that a revision is necessary for reasons of change of distribution or taxonomy. They are also pdf files - if anyone knows how to animate a pdf file please let us know!

If we were to make the data more dynamic, what would be a good tool for visualisation - Google Earth, NASA World Wind? Something else? If you have thoughts and suggestions please leave a comment.

We'd also like to announce that over the next few days we are going to make every 100th Map published so far, open access on the website - that way you can all get some idea of how they have changed over the years.

And finally, we're happy to hear from anyone who has suggestions for improving and developing the maps - please contact maps@cabi.org.

Katherine Cameron - Content Editor (Env. Sci.) & Mapping Coordinator
David Smith - Business Innovations Manager

Where have all the bees gone?

Recent reports of disappearing bees may initially come as a relief to some of us, but this is actually very serious news considering bees pollinate a large proportion of our plants, including some food crops, and are keystone species in the ecosystem.

Today the Bumblebee Conservation Trust invited the UK public to send in sightings of bumblebees over the summer so it can build up a map of where the 25 species of bumblebee are - 3 of the UK’s 25 species are already extinct, 5 are now designated UKBAP species in recognition of their precarious situation, and 4 more are scheduled for inclusion. Dave Goulson of the Trust said, "People with digital cameras or a camera on their mobile phones can send us pictures of the bumblebees in their garden and we will send them back an identification. If people send us the date and a postcode of where the bumblebee was seen then we will be able put together a national map."

Wine has many uses

The antioxidant protective effect of fruits and vegetables, notably tomatoes and green leafy vegetables, is well known. But did you know that a wine extract can protect your skin against the damaging effects of UV radiation?

Sunburn, immune suppression and skin cancers develop from overexposure of skin to solar UV radiation, which results in the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Among the preventative and protective strategies against the harmful effects of UV to the skin is the application of antioxidants.

I was intrigued to see a paper by an Italian group of researchers (In vitro protective effect of a Jacquez grapes wine extract on UVB-induced skin damage) on this potential use for wine extract. The extract contained a significant level of proanthocyanidins, together with lower amounts of anthocyanins and hydroxycinnamic acids. It reduced skin damage in studies using a tissue culture model of human epidermis, and in a previous study topical application of the gel protected the skin of healthy volunteers. I was even more intrigued to find out that oral administration of some botanical extracts can be as successful as topical application! It doesn't have to be wine extract - green tea has also shown promise.

Searching CAB Abstracts (skin and ultraviolet radiation and antioxidant properties) showed that photoprotection by natural products is an emerging worldwide therapeutic approach for free-radical-mediated diseases including cancer. Pharmacological studies on UV skin damage prevention by plant extracts are reported in papers published in around 30 different journals, ranging from the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research to the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (from Japan).

1000 diseases mapped!

This month sees the publication of map number 1000 of Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases the authoritative source for accurate data on the worldwide distribution of plant diseases of economic or quarantine importance, published by CABI in association with the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO).

First published in 1942, Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases are a respected, referenced source of distribution data, expertly compiled and validated and used by plant health organisations around the world. The maps cover important diseases affecting agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Two sets of 18 disease maps are produced each year, covering fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes, comprising mostly of new maps and also some map revisions. Many maps have been revised following changes to taxonomy or distribution, some a number of times – the most revised map is currently Peronospora hyoscyami f.sp. tabacina (map no. 23) which was revised for the 10th time in 1998!

Since April 2006 Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases as well as it’s sister product Distribution Maps of Plant Pests (with maps of nearly 700 arthropod plant pest species) have also been available in electronic format with a complete and fully searchable electronic backfile dating back over the 65 years of their publication.

And the 1000th disease species to be mapped is… (drum roll please)… Oidium neolycopersici L. Kiss, a fungus commonly known as tomato powdery mildew affecting the leaves and stems of, as the name suggests, mainly tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Severe infections caused by O. neolycopersici, especially if they start early in the growing season, lead to a reduction in fruit size and quality. Apparently, it was absent in Canada and the USA until the 1990s but soon after its first detection on greenhouse tomatoes in Québec, Canada the pathogen spread rapidly from one region to another in North America and it is now widespread in many states of Canada and the USA. This indicates that the fungus can be considered as an invasive species as it can spread rapidly in new areas where it sometimes causes economic damage. O. neolycopersici was only recently recognized as a distinct species of the Erysiphaceae during studies by Kiss et al. (see references below) and this recent clarification has enabled us to accurately map this species now.

To celebrate the publication of map no. 1000 we have made this map open access - just click here to view it in PDF format.

For more information about this product including the processes involved in making the maps, how to get a free trial or subscribe and for a full list of the species that are mapped in Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases please go to www.cababstractsplus.org/DMPD.

For more information on Oidium neolycopersici and its distribution please see the following references:

• Kiss, L.; Cook, R. T. A.; Saenz, G. S.; Cunnington, J. H.; Takamatsu, S.; Pascoe, I.; Bardin, M.; Nicot, P. C.; Sato, Y.; Rossman, A. Y. (2001) Identification of two powdery mildew fungi, Oidium neolycopersici sp. nov. and O. lycopersici, infecting tomato in different parts of the world. Mycological Research 105 (6), 684-697.
• Kiss, L.; Takamatsu, S.; Cunnington, J. H. (2005) Molecular identification of Oidium neolycopersici as the causal agent of the recent tomato powdery mildew epidemics in North America. Plant Disease 89, 491-496.
• CABI (2006) Crop Protection Compendium.

Celebrating Linnaeus

2007 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus, father of binomial nomenclature. Nature has marked the occasion by publishing a special issue crammed full of Linnaean-inspired thought.

Although trained in medicine and a keen zoologist, Linnaeus is perhaps best known as an excellent botanist - his field trips were said to be so popular that tens of students would accompany him on botanical forays through the Swedish countryside.

Lasting fame for Linnaeus came with the publication of Species Plantarum in 1753 and Systema Naturae (10th ed.) in 1758, where binomial nomenclature was consistently used for plants and animals, respectively, for the first time. 

It has to be noted that the great man was not without a sense of humour, with the suggestion that he name the toad Bufo after the French naturalist and sparring partner, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon!

Further information about Linnaeus can be found at:

Linné on line
Linnaeus link
The Linnaean Society of London (hosting a number of events throughout 2007 to celebrate the Linnean Tercentenary)

My love is like a blue, blue rose

I wonder if Robert Burns would have felt as inspired about blue roses as he was about the romantic red. Personally speaking, I prefer my geraniums red and delphiniums blue although I find the desire for horticultural oddities quite fascinating. For many centuries a true blue flower has been the Holy Grail of plant breeders with many attempts resulting in lilac or merely 'bluish' flowers.

Florists, many of which currently dye their roses blue, anxiously await the release of 'The World's First Blue Rose', a GM flower created by a combination of gene silencing and introduction of delphinidin genes*. Although only pale violet in colour this rose is still a world first as it's colour does actually come from delphinidin rather than from modification of other anthocyanins.

A Role for Rice in Causing and Tackling Climate Change?

Rice provides the staple food for around 2 billion people, and demand is forecast to grow at 1% a year, with no increase in land available. Some recent studies have indicated that rice production is contributing to climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). An analysis by Reiner Wassmann, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl and Achim Dobermann suggests that the impact is complex and it is crucial that the interactions between production and climate change and the potential to mitigate negative effects are explored.

Wassmann and colleagues, based at the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research in Karlsruhe, Germany and the International Rice Research Institute , Manila, Philippines say that changing trends in crop