University takes role in grasses project

Jeni Harvey

GRASSES from across the world are to be documented by scientists from Sheffield University, in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

The project, which aims to enable researchers to understand the biology and threats to grassland, will see experts from the university’s department of animal and plant sciences produce an online resource called GrassPortal.

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GrassPortal will offer public access to evolutionary and ecological data on the world’s grass species and also greatly expand the web services offered by the Royal Botanic Gardens.

It will allow any of the 11,000 species of grasses worldwide to be defined by its geographical range, climate preferences and evolutionary relationships to other species.

GrassPortal will also offer scientists a “one-stop-shop” for easily accessing and analysing data and will be useful for researchers in the fields of climate change, conservation biology and evolutionary biology.

Dr Colin Osborne, senior Royal Society university research fellow from the department of animal and plant sciences at Sheffield University, who is also director of the GrassPortal project, said: “Grasses feed human civilisation and economies, and our lives would quickly fall apart without them.

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“Understanding the biology and threats to these species is vital for humanity in the 21st century, and I’m delighted that Kew have joined with Sheffield to tackle this global problem.”

Grasses are present on every continent on the planet, and play major roles in the global economy and ecosystem. They account for most of our staple food crops and livestock feeds, including rice, barley, wheat, maize, millet and sugarcane.

It is thought that the same scientific approach used by GrassPortal could be rolled out to cover all of the world’s half million plant species during the coming decade.

Dr David Simpson, assistant keeper in the herbarium, library, art and archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, who is a partner in the GrassPortal project, said: “The worldwide importance of grasses means that they are a key part of Kew’s Breathing Planet programme to help save threatened plants and habitats and improve people’s quality of life. We are very pleased to join with Sheffield University in this timely and vital initiative.”

Ben Showers, programme manager at project funder JISC, added: “GrassPortal will provide a single point of access for scientists, researchers and students to an extraordinary range of grass data.”