Plants and people (S173) is a fascinating OU course looking at the astonishing variety of uses we put plants to. Whether you're studying it, thinking of studying it or have completed it and want to offer others advice and support to others, then here's the place to chat.
£196k hits the iSpot
iSpot is a website aimed at helping anyone identify anything in nature. Once you've registered, you can add an observation to the website and suggest an identification yourself or see if anyone else can identify it for you.
Launched in 2008 with a five-year, £2 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund for England, iSpot has built a nationwide community of tens of thousands of people who are helping each other to observe and learn more about the natural world around them. There are currently over 17,000 registered users who have submitted more than 95,000 observations of about 5,500 species.
The next phase of the project will see several exciting new developments for users of iSpot, building on the foundations iSpot has established.
These include:
- Rapid-ID: a picture browser for beginners
- Mobile: iSpot in the hand and in the field
- Biodiversity Mentors: Outreach for the whole UK
- Personal: Customization for each user
The many eyes of the iSpot community have proved so keen, that hundreds of rarities have been recorded and two species new to Britain have been discovered.
iSpot’s award winning website has been designed to help remedy the gap in the general public’s identification skills. It is pioneering in its approach to supporting learning across the boundary between the informal and formal, using a combination of social networking, informal access to expertise and accredited learning opportunities. Anyone can upload a photograph of animals, plants, fungi or any living organisms they have seen. The photo is then displayed on the iSpot home page where other users can agree with the identification, attach a comment, or add a revised identification.
Find out more
• iSpot
• Support ISpot and find out about other Open University projects
• The Garfield Weston Foundation
The OU’s award-winning project iSpot has received a £196,000 boost from the Garfield Weston Foundation so people can learn about and improve their local environment for biodiversity. iSpot is a website aimed at helping anyone identify anything in nature. Once you've registered, you can add an observation to the website and suggest an identification yourself or see ...
NutNet explodes time-honoured theory relating number of species to habitat
The ecologists, who include OU research fellow Dr Carly Stevens, conducted parallel experiments at 48 different sites on five continents to test the long-held theory.
First proposed by ecologist Philip Grime, it suggests there is a clear relationship between the productivity of a habitat and the number of plant species in it.
This relationship is said to be "hump-shaped", because the number of species first rises then declines as land becomes more productive, with species' numbers peaking in land which is intermediate between low and high productivity.
However data from the NutNet (short for Nutrient Network) experiments shows no clear relationship at all between number of plant species and productivity.
"We are dismissing one of the fundamental rules of ecology," says Dr Stevens."Our work shows the relationship between species and productivity is much more complex than was thought."
She said the findings demonstrate the value of the network's innovative approach. "We all did the same experiments across the world, that is what is unique about NutNet. It is really exciting to be part of it."
Ironically, says Dr Stevens, a podcast of her interviewing the scientist who originally described the hump-shaped relationship model, is part of the study material for the OU's Ecosystems course S396. She says it will probably remain in the course.
"I don't think this will be changed because the relationship does apply in some situations. I think that when Phil Grime described this relationship originally, he didn't expect it to be applied in every situation."
The NutNet research is published today Friday 23 September in the journal Science (see below). OU students can access articles in Science for free via the OU Library.
Useful Links
Research by international biodiversity and ecosystems network NutNet, has overturned an ecological model taught to students since the 1970s. The ecologists, who include OU research fellow Dr Carly Stevens, conducted parallel experiments at 48 different sites on five continents to test the long-held theory. First proposed by ecologist Philip Grime, it suggests ...
Fancy a career as a fungal taxonomist?
What do people think a fungal taxonomist is?
I suspect people wouldn’t really know. I’m very specialised actually; I work on just a single group of organism: the fungi that form Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (their formal name is the Glomeromycota). These fungi are so specialised that they can’t live without their plant partners. They are essential to plant growth and they assist plants to take nutrients up to the soil. It’s a mutual thing so they get carbohydrates from the plant. But a fungal taxonomist is someone who names and classifies fungi.
What did you study at the OU and what was your experience like as a student?
I did all the foundation courses. I had a Foresters certificate and a few O Levels but that was all my qualifications at the time. The OU gave me the opportunity to do a degree which otherwise would not have been an option.
I did Maths and Science which were terrific and went on with Sciences. I did Electronics but never understood much about it (though I managed to scrape a pass). That got me the basic Bachelor’s degree. It was a very rewarding time, even though it was hard work. I really felt like a pioneer in this new educational experience, and will always be grateful for the opportunity.
I was about to start on my Honours when I met at work an American Scientist (the late Prof. Sande McNabb) who was on sabbatical (a tree pathologist). He was interested in my work on Dutch Elm disease and offered me the opportunity to go to America for four years and study a PhD at Iowa University. However, when I arrived in America, the funding for Dutch Elm disease had run out so I had the opportunity to work in a new area of interest: mycorrhiza.
I discovered most of the fungi I was finding didn’t have proper names (or names at all) and the names given to some of them were ’pre-Linnean’ – that is, they were more or less just described as ‘little yellow spores’ or ‘white spores with a bulb at the base’. I got interested in naming them and separating the different species and it went from there.
There are only three or four who work on taxonomy in the world. I suppose quite a few more describe ‘new species’ by comparing them with anything that already exists but that doesn’t interest me so much as the classification (placing them in a natural order).
Is it all lab based or do you go into the field?
Sometimes I do go into the field and collect, but much of what I do is either through high powered microscopes, or (in cooperation with a colleague in Germany) with DNA analysis. These particular fungi are difficult things to work with. Because they mostly develop underground, they are the sort of things few would know about or see but we are pretty sure that plants would not have evolved from aquatic conditions without the help of these symbiotic fungi. So plants with roots co-evolved with the ancestors of these fungi.
Do you have any advice for OU students hoping for a career in Science?
If you’re looking for fortune, academic science isn’t the place to go but, if you’re looking for a very satisfying life with constant interest Science is the place. Work hard, develop an interest and find something that nobody else is doing, but most of all, throw yourself into it with enthusiasm and a sense of discovery.
Christopher Walker is an OU pioneer, part of the very first intake of OU students in 1971. He studied whilst working as an entomology forester for the Forestry Commission Research Division, and has enjoyed an unusual career as a fungal taxonomist. What do people think a fungal taxonomist is? I suspect people wouldn’t really know. I’m very specialised actually; I ...
Annual count records change in rare plant population
Volunteers are helping to record and preserve threatened and rare plants found in floodplain meadows across the country, thanks to a project supported by the Open University.
The Floodplain Meadows Partnership, supported by the OU, has been recording the change in the population of snake’s head fritillary - a rare plant - at North Meadow, Cricklade, in Wiltshire, for over 10 years. This count takes place at the time of peak flowering in mid April every year by a team of volunteers.
"One of the key species that we collect data on is the rare snake’s head fritillary, found on only a handful of sites in the UK," says Floodplain Meadows Outreach Co-Ordinator Emma Rothero.
"In particular, the Open University has collected data from North Meadow, a National Nature Reserve in Wiltshire, owned and managed by Natural England, and home to 80 per cent of the UK population of these special plants."
The project collects data on plant species and plant communities found within floodplain meadows, as well as information about hydrology, soil fertility and structure, and site management.
The annual count is done using the help of volunteers and this video shows you what they got up to during the 2011 count.
If you would like to get involved - volunteers are already being sought for the 2012 count - or find out more, visit the website. You can also take part in a plant quiz, go on a virtual walk, find meadow sites near you and become part of Meadow Watch.
Volunteers are helping to record and preserve threatened and rare plants found in floodplain meadows across the country, thanks to a project supported by the Open University. The Floodplain Meadows Partnership, supported by the OU, has been recording the change in the population of snake’s head fritillary - a rare plant - at North Meadow, Cricklade, in Wiltshire, for over 10 ...
OU thanked as an era ends for Northern Ireland college
The Open University has been thanked for its support over 15 years as the final students graduated from OU-validated honours degree courses at Northern Ireland’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.
2011 marks the end of an era for the honours degrees in Food Technology and Food Supply Management said Ian Titterington, head of CAFRE’s Loughry Campus at the annual awards ceremony in Cookstown, Co Tyrone.
He told Farm Week: “I would like to thank the Open University for their strong support over the past 15 years as we developed and delivered our honours degree provision".
The Open University has been thanked for its support over 15 years as the final students graduated from OU-validated honours degree courses at Northern Ireland’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise. 2011 marks the end of an era for the honours degrees in Food Technology and Food Supply Management said Ian Titterington, head of CAFRE’s Loughry Campus ...
EU biofuel policy "could significantly undermine the environmental benefits"
European Union policy on the use of biofuels has been questioned in a major new report from the Open University and the Transnational Institute.
"Our research found the harmful effects of biofuel cultivation could significantly undermine the environmental benefits,” Dr Les Levidow, Senior Research Fellow at The Open University, said.
“The EU has promoted biofuels in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If conventional biofuel usage goes much above 6% of transport fuels, it will trigger large-scale indirect land use changes, which could undermine the supposed savings in greenhouse gas from substituting biofuels for oil."
Dr Les Levidow is a senior research fellow in the Development Policy and Practice in the OU's faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology.
Read the full story on the OU news release site here.
See report based on the research.
Photo: Thinkstock
European Union policy on the use of biofuels has been questioned in a major new report from the Open University and the Transnational Institute. "Our research found the harmful effects of biofuel cultivation could significantly undermine the environmental benefits,” Dr Les Levidow, Senior Research Fellow at The Open University, ...
National Science and Engineering Week 2011
To celebrate National Science and Engineering Week Platform has gathered up some interesting articles, podcasts and games you might find interesting.
Have a listen to themed content on The Open University's iTunes U pages or listen to the collection on Science Communication and Public Engagement. For National Science and Engineering Week on OpenLearn, read articles or play games like the DIY catapult, discover how you can turn your kitchen into a lab.
And on Platform you can join or browse the following groups:
To celebrate National Science and Engineering Week Platform has gathered up some interesting articles, podcasts and games you might find interesting. Have a listen to themed content on The Open University's iTunes U pages or listen to the collection on Science Communication and Public Engagement. For National Science and Engineering Week on OpenLearn, read articles ...
How plants can trap killers
Fascinating interview with forensic botanist Patricia Wiltshire, who helped convict Sohan killer Ian Huntley, among others. Patricia Wiltshire authored a chapter in the Plants and People coursebook.
Forensic Ecology: CSI hedgerow
Fascinating interview with forensic botanist Patricia Wiltshire, who helped convict Sohan killer Ian Huntley, among others. Patricia Wiltshire authored a chapter in the Plants and People coursebook. Forensic Ecology: CSI hedgerow 3 Average: 3 (5 votes)
