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
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.
- 26 likes
- 0 comments
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.
- 6 likes
- 0 comments
Adapting agriculture to a changing climate
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.
Botanical survey doubles the known flora of Lunda Norte, Angola
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.
Conserving British waxcap fungi
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.
Can bees meet their nutritional needs in the UK?
A new project is studying the nutrition of bees in the UK in a BBSRC initiative that aims to understand the decline of pollinators in Britain.
Trust’s link-up with Kew offers hope for endangered butterfly
Specialists from Kew and Durham Wildlife Trust are working together to help save the endangered small pearl bordered fritillary butterfly in County Durham.
Kew Patrons take tour of the Conservation Biotechnology Laboratory
Kew Patrons go behind the scenes for an exclusive tour of Kew’s innovative conservation laboratory and get a glimpse of some of the world’s most endangered plants.
Freezing Ascension's rare ferns for the future
by: Ed Jones, UK Overseas Territories team blog25 Aug 2011
Ed Jones has just spent a year working with Kew's Conservation Biotechnology team investigating different methods of conserving several of the threatened ferns unique to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.
- 17 likes
- 1 comment
Sowing the seeds of UK biodiversity - Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank launches UK Native Seed Hub
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew launches the UK Native Seed Hub at the Millennium Seed Bank, Wakehurst – an initiative that draws on the Millennium Seed Bank’s extensive collection of UK native seeds, as well as its horticultural and scientific expertise to support the UK seed industry, conservation groups and other organisations working to restore native plants to the UK countryside.
