Conservation and climate change news
Plants have an essential role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change, because they take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Conversely, if forests are destroyed by burning, then carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere. Deforestation accounts for about one fifth of the world’s carbon emissions.
However, plants are threatened by environmental changes including climate change. Conserving plants is therefore critical to any sustainable solution to environmental change.
Kew's work in this area | Adopt a seed for £25 and help Kew protect plant life
Launching the UKOTs Online Herbarium
by: Sara Barrios, UK Overseas Territories team blog22 May 2012
We are bringing the unique and amazing plants that grow in the UKOTs, including those from the Caribbean, a little closer to you in celebration of International Day of Biological Diversity. Just a shame we can't bring the Caribbean weather too!
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Pine pests on the Turks and Caicos Islands
15 May 2012
Scientists are studying the insects causing the decline of the Caribbean pine on Turks and Caicos and searching for chemical markers for unhealthy trees.
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Analyses of Marianne North paintings
04 May 2012
Chemical analyses of Kew’s Marianne North oil paintings have helped in their conservation.
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Describing the coastal dry forests of northern Mozambique
21 Mar 2012
A recent publication defines and characterises the coastal dry forests found in northern Mozambique and assesses their present extent, botanical composition and conservation importance.
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‘Polyunsaturates’ not good for booklice
22 Feb 2012
Research at Kew is investigating ways to protect library, museum and herbarium collections from damage caused by booklice.
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From the field - Harapan Rainforest, Sumatra
by: Marie Briggs, GIS team blog27 Jan 2012
Kew's GIS and South East Asia team report from the forests of Sumatra. This is the first of their posts.
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Investigating the spread of an invasive tree in the Turks and Caicos Islands
by: Alexandra Davey, UK Overseas Territories team blog24 Jan 2012
Alexandra Davey, a Conservation Science MSc student from Imperial College, spent two months in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), investigating the spread of an invasive tree, Casuarina equisetifolia, which threatens coastal habitats there.
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Adapting agriculture to a changing climate
28 Nov 2011
The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership has begun work to collect seed from the wild relatives of 26 crop plants as their genetic diversity may enable us to adapt agricultural crops to the climates of the future.
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Botanical survey doubles the known flora of Lunda Norte, Angola
21 Nov 2011
A rapid survey of three river catchments in a remote area of Angola has provided reasons for their designation under the Angolan Protected Areas Expansion Strategy.
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Conserving British waxcap fungi
18 Nov 2011
A Defra-funded project at Kew is working to find out how many waxcap species there are in Britain, and to improve methods for their identification. The results of this work should help conservationists to prioritise those species and sites which are most in need of further protection.
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