By Lindsey Atkinson (@LJA_1)
In the week that the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was issued (31.03.2014) with its emphasis on risks and the importance of adaptation, the UK Plant Sciences Federation (UKPSF) held their 2014 conference ‘Plant Science – Sustaining Life on Earth’ at the University of York. This conference brings together a wide range of plant scientists from ecologists to molecular biologists and gives them the opportunity to share their knowledge across disciplines.
In the week that the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was issued (31.03.2014) with its emphasis on risks and the importance of adaptation, the UK Plant Sciences Federation (UKPSF) held their 2014 conference ‘Plant Science – Sustaining Life on Earth’ at the University of York. This conference brings together a wide range of plant scientists from ecologists to molecular biologists and gives them the opportunity to share their knowledge across disciplines.
A key theme of the conference was food
security1 and how plant science may help to meet some of the
challenges we face. The conference was
opened with a keynote lecture from Prof Tim Benton (University of Leeds) on
‘Feed, food and fuel: plants and future security’ where he gave us an overview
of some of these challenges. Drivers of
change include the growth in global demand for food, globalization and the
changing climate. Combine this with soil
degradation and these things add up to make future food supplies look very
uncertain! On the other side of the
coin, it’s not just about food supplies, but also about waste. Some of these themes were echoed in Prof
Peter Gregory’s (East Malling Research/University of Reading) talk in which he
looked at the importance of sustainable agriculture and reducing waste and
loss.
Some of the headline figures from the
recently published UKPSF report Status of UK Plant Science: Current Status and Future Challenges include:
- ‘There will be 2.4bn extra people to feed by 2050’
- ‘Global food production must increase by 60-110% to meet this demand’
- ‘Up to 40% of global crop yields are lost to plant pests and diseases each year’
- ‘Agriculture accounts for 70% of the world’s fresh water use’
- ‘By 2030, global energy demand is predicted to rise by 40%’
At one level these challenges need to be
tackled through politics and economics but plant scientists are using their
knowledge and creativity to contribute too, which brings us back to gribbles
and fish oil…
Gribbles are small, marine, wood-boring
crustaceans and wouldn’t normally make an appearance at a plant science
conference. However, understanding and
using their digestive enzymes may increase the efficiency with which we can break
down woody materials to produce biofuels (read more).
We also learned that fish oil isn’t made by
fish – yes, you guessed it – it is made by plants (in this case marine algae)
and accumulated by the fish. Using fish as a source of these fish oils for
fish farming is not sustainable but using transgenic crops could be… (read more).
There were many more examples of how plant
scientists are working to improve crop yield and yield stability, water and
nutrient use in agriculture and the nutritional value of crops. There is also a lot of current research on using
plants as factories to produce additional nutrients and biofuels. You can find more details of all the topics
covered at the conference at http://plantsci2014.org.uk/programme/
The future for plant scientists in the UK was the topic for a debate
chaired by Dr Sandy Knapp of the Natural History Museum. Although great strengths were recognized in
the plant science research community, it was noted that it has an ageing
population and skills shortages are predicted.
The importance of inspiring students from an early age was emphasized
with calls for greater inclusion of plant science in the curriculum at both
school and in higher education. The next
challenge is once inspired, providing the opportunities to keep scientists in
this area.
The panel (from L to R): Sarah Gurr (University of Exeter), Jim Beynon (University of Warwick), Sandy Knapp (Natural History Museum, London), Mark Chase (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Mike Bushell (Syngenta) and Dale Sanders (John Innes Centre).
The conference closed with a final talk
from Prof Jackie Hunter, Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), who gave her view of a 21st
Century Vision for Plant Science to tackle challenges in sustainable crop production.