A plant species known as the Corpse Flower, or scientifically as Amorphophallus titanium, only blooms once every decade or even longer when conditions are perfect. This means that the Corpse Flower has a very shallow and delicate gene pool threatening it's extinction. With less than 1,000 individuals in the wild and less than 500 in collections, it means the plant has very limited genetic diversity meaning some flowers are too closely related. However, scientists have borrow a strategy to deal with this with the help of "studbooks", which are typically used by animal breeders. These help horticulturalists (experts of garden cultivation and management) get the best matches to breed these plants so they are the most genetically diverse and healthy.
Personally, articles like this interest me a lot and I think what this article consists of is going to be huge for preservation of more plant species in the future. With the borrowing of this technique from breeders in zoos, this will hopefully increase pollution of species of plants that are in the similar situation to the Corpse Flower. I feel like strides like this in science will hopefully allow plants similar to the Corpse Flower survive longer than their expected time of extinction.
1. Do you think this new technique will help horticulturalists in the future to prevent other species of plants going extinct?
2. How does biodiversity of plants in the ecosystem help the earth?
3. How could this new technique benefit humans in the future? (Maybe oranges are almost going extinct)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/can-horticulturalists-save-corpse-flower-180976816/
If external factors like climate change or human interference were to disrupt an ecosystem or just a few species of plants in the case of minimal biodiversity, those plants would likely die off, disrupting the whole ecosystem, as other plants and animals likely rely on those plants. However, in the case of high biodiversity, the ecosystem wouldn't be as affected, as there would still be plenty of other plants for animals to choose from, which would keep the ecosystem running smoothly. If not, the extinction of one species of plants could have a chain reaction, which would eventually affect us humans. Thus, this new technique benefits us immensely, as it ensures a level of stability for us and the planet, even against the uncertainties of nature. Biodiversity would also allow for genetic diversity within species, as you said, which would allow for more potential winners in nature's "survival of the fittest," preventing extinction of a particular species.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think this new technique will help horticulturalists in the future to prevent other species of plants from going extinct. I agree that it’s really interesting to read how science is helping the environment, and like Lauren said, high biodiversity is important, and the loss of one species of plant affects others in the environment like a chain reaction. A lot of times we hear about animals in danger of becoming extinct, but it’s really cool that there are new ways to prevent plant extinction too. I totally think these “studbooks” and new techniques used by horticulturalists can help benefit humans in the future. A couple weeks ago, I saw this movie that illustrated a future world with no plants and everyone had to breathe synthetic oxygen. Even though it was fiction, it was still pretty freaky to imagine a grim world without plants, and I think these scientific innovations, along with protecting the Earth, can prevent that from happening.
ReplyDeleteIn the future, this could 100% be a viable way of saving species of plants from going extinct, especially if you can't keep remnants of the plants in the seed bank like the Corpse Flower. Along with that, that movie sounds interesting, and could maybe help people see what life would be like if biodiversity isn't maintained in the world's ecosystem.
DeleteI dont really think using this new technique to sustain a plant is all that bad considering this is similar to selective breeding. In that Humans take advantage of nature to produce results favorable to humans. As for biodiversity, its pretty clear that its good for nature as each plant or organism ussaly fills a niche that is important for an ecosystem. This new technique will most definately save plants from going extinct but I dont think it will help farming all to much. Mostly because in farming farmers want a specific gene to produce more crops and arent all to concerned with looking for plants with diversity. Overall I think it has good scientifc aplication but not practical aplication.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading the actual article, they do say they borrowed the technique of selective breeding from animal breeders. Which I think is interesting and could be very useful for other branches of science, like some chemistry involving physics. I agree that this wouldn't help mass scale farming, but it would help revitalize a species on the brink of extinction, which would then help the species get bigger, and that in turn would help farming. I would say that it is a genius scientific application, but niche and if needed could be put into place.
DeleteThis technique will definitely help horticulturalists prevent other plant species from going extinct in the future. Because of how life on Earth has evolved, organisms in similar groups (ex plants) are pretty similar on even some of the most basic levels, so there's not much in the way of saying that this could help other plant species as well. Biodiversity is important both, as Pascal said, to fill niche and specialized roles in certain ecosystems but also to create almost a safety net to fall back on should a particular species of plant go extinct. If we have lots of different kinds of plants doing the same thing, one plant going extinct does not have as catastrophic an impact as it would if it (the now extinct plant) was the only plant filling that role.
ReplyDeleteAs for helping humans in the future, we obviously get the passive production of oxygen as long as plants are still performing photosynthesis, but I don't think this technique could necessarily bring a plant species back from near-extinction to mass production like you would see in farming. It has really cool applications for saving species, but I don't think we'll see it being used to massively increase populations.