🌻 The Week in Botany December 11, 2023
This week I heard that the Royal Society of Biology will have a free online event. Professor Jonathan Drori will be talking about the ground rules for effective science communication. You can sign up now for the event on Friday, February 2 2024.
The Christmas tree is up in the home office and Stanley, the office manager, has claimed it as his new spot. The New Year is approaching fast, and next week will be the last newsletter of the year. If you want me to mention something this year, it’s your last chance. The newsletter should be with you at the usual time next week. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
Climate-Proof Wheat: Insights on Key Traits for Yield Stability in a Dynamic Environment
Assessing the impact of traits on wheat yield and stability under climate change.
Exploring the Influence of Phloem Resistance on Root System Architecture
Studies model the local influence of phloem resistance on taproot and lateral root growth.
FYI: Preparing for a post-Twitter future
A post explaining how we’re preparing for a post-Twitter era by using Botany.fyi, a link shortener, to compile popular posts from various social media platforms.
FYI: Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
News & Views
It looks festive, but this invasive tree is infesting NW forests
”We were looking for English holly, a cherished Christmas symbol that is threatening biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest. We were there to poison it.”
Do Not Taunt the Native Plants
Along the Hermosa Beach greenbelt. The South Bay Parkland Conservancy has been restoring parts of the habitat near the south end of the trail to support monarchs and other endangered butterflies.
Nearly half of the world’s flowering plants face the threat of extinction, study says
A new study estimates that nearly half of the world’s known flowering plants are threatened. Scientists built an AI model using plants they know are threatened or safe, then used it to estimate how many others are threatened as well.
China opens world’s tallest unmanned veggie farm as more urban agriculture advancements take root
Vertical farms are seen as an essential means of bringing enough food to arid and urban parts of China, with automated facilities that provide year-round harvests. Unaffected by climate constraints, new Chengdu facility can reportedly produce a harvest of lettuce every 35 days under AI-controlled environmental conditions.
What a lawsuit over planting sequoias tells us about mega-fires
National Park Service officials want to help forests recover and regrow by planting seedlings. ”Natural regeneration may not be sufficient to support self-sustaining groves into the future, particularly as the fires killed an unprecedented number of reproductive sequoia trees in the groves themselves,” the agency said in a news release. But a contingent of environmental groups is suing NPS over its plan.
Plant nurseries are exacerbating the climate-driven spread of 80% of invasive species
Researchers have provided detailed maps of how 144 common invasive plant species will react to 2° Celsius of climate change in the eastern U.S., as well as the role that garden centres currently play in seeding future invasions.
At least 241 invasive plants mapped in 7 South Asian countries; India tops list
Scientists from India and six other countries have come up with an inventory of 241 plants, which were introduced in south Asian countries and have over the years become Invasive Alien Species (IAS). India tops the list with 185 such plant species.
Microbes essential to plants are disappearing due to global warming
Overall, these diminishing bacteria were found to be crucial missing elements from fruitful agroecosystems responsible for yielding food. Could they lead to a nutritional shortage?
Insects thrive on solar farms planted with native flowers
Two solar farms in Minnesota saw big increases in bees and other insects after a variety of native grasses and wildflowers were planted among the panels.
Colonizing Plants: How Bougainvillea Conquered the World
Shahnaz Habib on the Relationship Between Colonialism, Natural Science and Travel
Scientific Papers
Angiosperm flowers reached their highest morphological diversity early in their evolutionary history (OA)
Based on a comprehensive dataset focusing on 30 characters describing floral structure across angiosperms, LĂłpez-MartĂnez et al. used 1201 extant and 121 fossil flowers to measure floral disparity and explore patterns of floral evolution through time and across lineages. They found that angiosperms reached their highest floral disparity in the Early Cretaceous. However, decreasing disparity toward the present likely has not precluded the innovation of other complex traits at other morphological levels, which likely played a key role in the outstanding angiosperm species richness.
Unisexual flowers as a resolution to intralocus sexual conflict in hermaphrodites (OA)
In dioecious populations, males and females may evolve different trait values to increase fitness through their respective sexual functions. Because hermaphrodites express both sexual functions, resolving sexual conflict is potentially more difficult for them. Chen & Pannell show that hermaphrodite plants can partially resolve sexual conflict by expressing different trait values in different male and female modules (e.g. different flowers, inflorescences, branches etc.).
Global patterns and ecological drivers of taxonomic and phylogenetic endemism in angiosperm genera (OA)
Endemism of lineages lies at the core of understanding variation in community composition among geographic regions because it reflects how speciation, extinction, and dispersal have influenced current distributions. Qian et al. investigated geographic patterns and ecological drivers of taxonomic and phylogenetic endemism of angiosperm genera across the world. We identify centers of paleo-endemism and neo-endemism of angiosperm genera, and show that they are mostly located in the Southern Hemisphere in tropical and subtropical regions, particularly in Asia and Australia.
Physical infrastructure and global capacity are both needed to fight biodiversity loss ($)
Kersey & Antonelli respond to recent reports on plans to move Kew Herbarium to Reading.
ReadCube: https://rdcu.be/dtbui
Cheap, cost-effective, and quick stress biomarkers for drought stress detection and monitoring in plants (OA)
The detection and monitoring of drought stress in plants growing in their natural habitat are essential for the study of plant stress physiology. However, with the advent of plant phenotyping and new -omics technologies, the application of simple, cheap, cost-effective, quick, and practical methods to assess drought stress in plants seems more challenging than ever, particularly in low-income countries. Munné-Bosch & Villadangos discuss currently available methods that do not require specialized equipment, but reliably detect and monitor drought stress in plants at low cost will be discussed.
The soil microbiome governs the response of microbial respiration to warming across the globe ($)
The sensitivity of soil microbial respiration to warming (Q10) remains a major source of uncertainty surrounding the projections of soil carbon emissions to the atmosphere as the factors driving Q10 patterns across ecosystems have been assessed in isolation from each other. Sáez-Sandino et al. report the results of a warming experiment using soils from 332 sites across all continents and major biomes to simultaneously evaluate the main drivers of global Q10 patterns.
Genomic analysis of Coccomyxa viridis, a common low-abundance alga associated with lichen symbioses (OA)
Lichen symbiosis is centered around a relationship between a fungus and a photosynthetic microbe, usually a green alga. In addition to their main photosynthetic partner (the photobiont), lichen symbioses can contain additional algae present in low abundance. The biology of these algae and the way they interact with the rest of lichen symbionts remains largely unknown. Tagirdzhanova et al. present the first genome sequence of a non-photobiont lichen-associated alga. Coccomyxa viridis was unexpectedly found in 12% of publicly available lichen metagenomes.
Grass Plants Bind, Retain, Uptake, and Transport Infectious Prions (OA)
Prions are the protein-based infectious agents responsible for prion diseases. Environmental prion contamination has been implicated in disease transmission. Pritzkow et al. analyzed the binding and retention of infectious prion protein (PrPSc) to plants. Small quantities of PrPSc contained in diluted brain homogenate or in excretory materials (urine and feces) can bind to wheat grass roots and leaves.
Two new species of the fallax-pezizoides complex in Helvella (Helvellaceae, Pezizales) from Yunnan, China (OA)
During the investigation of Helvella in Yunnan, China, four saddle-like specimens were collected and studied. Through a comprehensive analysis of both morphological traits and phylogenetic data from LSU and hsp90 sequences, the four collections were identified and are described as two new species, i.e., Helvella liquii and H. pseudoatra. Helvella liquii stands out with its distinctive features, including the fusion of the pileus margin with the stipe, a slightly rugose coffee blackish surface on the receptacle, and relatively broad apex of the paraphyses. Helvella pseudoatra is characterized by a pubescent receptacle surface that exhibits shaded or dark grey to greyish brown.
Higher soil moisture increases microclimate temperature buffering in temperate broadleaf forests (OA)
Forest canopies can buffer the understory against temperature extremes, often creating cooler microclimates during warm summer days compared to temperatures outside the forest. The buffering of maximum temperatures in the understory results from a combination of canopy shading and air cooling through soil water evaporation and plant transpiration. Therefore, buffering capacity of forests depends on canopy cover and soil moisture content, which are increasingly affected by more frequent and severe canopy disturbances and soil droughts. The extent to which this buffering will be maintained in future conditions is unclear due to the lack of understanding about the relationship between soil moisture and air temperature buffering in interaction with canopy cover and topographic settings. Greiser et al. explored how soil moisture variability affects temperature offsets between outside and inside the forest on a daily basis, using temperature and soil moisture data from 54 sites in temperate broadleaf forests in Central Europe over four climatically different summer seasons.
Careers
Research Geneticist (Plants), Oregon
This position is located within the Agricultural Research Service, Pacific West Area, Horticultural Crops Production & Genetic Improvement Research Unit in Corvallis, OR. In this position, you will be responsible for acquiring and evaluating new blueberry germplasm, and incorporating and developing the germplasm into cultivars for the commercial industry.
Research Fellow in Plant-Microbe Interactions, Southampton
A postdoctoral position is available in the Plant-Microbe Interactions group of Dr Tomislav Cernava at the University of Southampton. The group focuses on deciphering plant-microbe interactions and identifying molecular mechanisms therein. We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with expertise in targeted genetic manipulation of plants. The successful applicant will work in a dynamic, collaborative environment to increase our understanding of fundamental plant-microbe interactions.
Website Coordinator - Botany, Wyoming
The job purpose is to provide communication and organizational support for the NSF EPSCoR Track-1 project: Wyoming Anticipating the Climate-Water Transition (WyACT). The position includes website development and maintenance, social media management, newsletter development, and event coordination.
Research Associate / PhD Student (m/f/x), Dresden
At the Faculty of Biology, the Chair of Botany offers a position as Research Associate / PhD Student (m/f/x) (subject to personal qualification employees are remunerated according to salary group E 13 TV-L) starting as soon as possible. The position comprises 50 % of the full-time weekly hours and is limited to 3 years. The project is Natural Research and Protestant Mission - The Plant Collections of the Moravian Church in the Herbarium of the TU Dresden: Identification and Contextualisation with Methods of Digital Humanities.
Research Associate - Plants for Space, Perth
These foundation postdoctoral appointments in Plant Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Synthetic Biology will allow you to start your career in an internationally recognised program of research. You will be mentored in the laboratory of Professor Harvey Millar, Professor Ryan Lister or Professor Ian Small and engage in engage in collaborative research projects across P4S University collaborators and with Industry partners. You will take part in supervising students in high quality postgraduate teaching programmes and in educational outreach activities, and be involved in translation of fundamental biomolecular science to provide innovative solutions to the future of plant use on earth and beyond.