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Feeding the world how plant biologists are working to avert the world food crisis

Feeding the world how plant biologists are working to avert the world food crisis. The perfect storm – food energy and water. The world is facing a potential crisis in terms of food security. £2 billion needed for science ’Grand Challenge’ to help feed the world.

madeleine-bertrand
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Feeding the world how plant biologists are working to avert the world food crisis

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  1. Feeding the world how plant biologists are working to avert the world food crisis

  2. The perfect storm – food energy and water The world is facing a potential crisis in terms of food security. £2 billion needed for science ’Grand Challenge’ to help feed the world Need to double crop production by 2050 to keep up with growing demand

  3. Thomas Robert Malthus

  4. The Green Revolution UK wheat yields have doubled since the 1970s That increase has ended UK wheat yields http://www.earth-policy.org/data_center/

  5. To improve crop yields we need plants that: Absorb more light Capture the light better through photosynthesis Put greater proportion of resources into useable products

  6. Improving photosynthesis will improve crop yields… …but what limits photosynthesis?

  7. Global warming threatens yields

  8. Predicted effects of Global Climate Change HEAT Drought! Cold! Rain

  9. Weather conditions affect yield 2007 Wet 1975/6 Summer droughts 2012 ~12% drop in yield Due to poor summer weather 2001 “Very average” Our research seeks to understand the factors that cause yields to fluctuate and so identify traits that increase yields in bad years UK wheat yields http://www.earth-policy.org/data_center/

  10. What we are going to do today… Visit the Faculty “Nature Garden” – collect some nature to use in the lab. Visit a research lab Experiments: a) Heat tolerance in different leaves – which plants are best suited to surviving hot environments?b) Chlorophyll– making the most of light

  11. Experiment 1 – heat tolerance Different plants have different ability to tolerate heat Heat stress affects photosynthesis Measure the heat tolerance using a “Plant stress meter” (FluoroPen)

  12. Experiment 2 – Chlorophyll content Plants contain 2 forms of chlorophyll, a & b. Absorb different colours of light Leaves in shade contain different ratio of chlorophylls to absorb different part of spectrum Measure the chlorophyll content using scanning spectrophotometer

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