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XIX IBC 2017 |
The Congress provided an excellent opportunity to catch up with colleagues from around the world and learn about some of the latest botanical research.
Smithsonian botany colleagues at the Congress included Jun Wen (one of the Congress organizers), John Kress (who gave a keynote address, see below), Larry Dorr, Conrad Labandeira, Vicki Funk, and maybe more that I didn't run into.
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Sandra Knapp |
The program was divided into plenary talks, keynote talks, general symposia, and public lectures (see abstracts for all here). The Congress opened with a public lecture by Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Raven's talk, "Saving Plants to Save Ourselves: The Shenzhen Declaration" was on the public announcement of the Shenzhen Declaration on Plant Sciences. Authored by fourteen illustrious botanists that formed the Shenzhen Declaration Drafting Committee, the declaration is an important statement on the role of plant science in a changing world. The declaration opens with:
"Actions and priorities to connect the global community of plant scientists with the world’s changing societies are today more imperative than ever. Environmental degradation, unsustainable resource use, and biodiversity loss all require integrated, collaborative solutions."
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IBC logos on Shenzhen skyline |
- To become responsible scientists and research communities who pursue plant sciences in the context of a changing world.
- To enhance support for the plant sciences to achieve global sustainability.
- To cooperate and integrate across nations and regions and to work together across disciplines and cultures to address common goals.
- To build and use new technologies and big data platforms to increase exploration and understanding of nature.
- To accelerate the inventory of life on Earth for the wise use of nature and the benefit of humankind.
- To value, document, and protect indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge about plants and nature.
- To engage the power of the public with the power of plants through greater participation and outreach, innovative education, and citizen science.
Another public lecture of note was by Sandra Knapp (Natural History Museum, London). Knapp's talk, "People and Plants -- the Unbreakable Bond". Knapp noted "Plants form the scaffold for Earth’s green ecosystems, but they are also essential for human survival. Plants provide most of the food we eat (directly or indirectly), our medicines, clothes, buildings, and even the air we breathe; they also beautify our daily lives." Knapp further detailed the importance of plants to humans and then pivoted to, ask "So we need plants, but do they need us?" Knapp's answer was yes:
"In this time of increasing human impact on plants, animals and natural habitats, our actions can make a big difference in whether plants are a part of an ecological civilization for the future. Plants do in fact need us - they need us to study and use them responsibly, both as scientists and as members of human societies."
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W. John Kress |
The Congress presented a number of excellent keynote and plenary talks. Of special note were the following:
"Tropical Plant-Animal Interactions: Coevolution in the Anthropocene" by W. John Kress (Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History). Kress illustrated his talk with research on the interaction of beetles, humming birds, and Zingiberales (including bananas, birds-of-paradise, heliconias, gingers, and prayer plants). Kress concluded with "The geographic mosaic of these relationships across tropical islands, fragmented landscapes, and elevational gradients suggests that human-caused habitat alterations, biological invasions, and climate change may significantly modify and disrupt through time and space the historical patterns of ecological interactions. The future of today’s biological complexity in the Age of Humans, in the Anthropocene, remains to be determined."
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Peter Wyse Jackson |
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Keping Ma |
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Jun Wen |
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Kevin Thiele |
In perhaps the most inspirational talk of the Congress, Stephen Blackmore (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) spoke on the seemingly simple topic, "Saving Plants". Blackmore drew on his personal experience in Pearl River Delta area to tie together the different sectors and stakeholders that are needed to create a world where plants, and by extension, humans, can both survive and thrive. Blackmore focused on how the contributions of botanic gardens, arboreta, seed banks and other collections of living and preserved plants to achieve the goal of saving plants. Blackmore ended on the note that "we will need to work closely together if we are to succeed in passing on the Earth’s rich, green inheritance to future generations."
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Stephen Blackmore |
For the Congress, I, along with Carolyn Sheffield, organized a general symposium, "The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Empowering Discovery through Free Access to Biodiversity Knowledge" with colleagues global partners of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Presenters at the symposium were:
- The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Empowering Discovery through Free Access to Biodiversity Knowledge | Martin R. Kalfatovic (Biodiversity Heritage Library / Smithsonian Libraries)
- Real use cases for Semantic Information in BHL | William Ulate (Center for Biodiversity Informatics, IT Department, Missouri Botanical Garden)
- A Checklist of the Orders and Families of Medicinal Plants in the Philippines | Harold Carag (The Graduate School, University of the Philippines, Los Banos)
- The Development and Progress of BHL China | Zheping Xu (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
- The Challenges of a Botanical Library in the Tropics and the Need for Restoration and Digitisation of Materials | Nura Abdul Karim (Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board)
- Building Botanical Literature Collections for Global Use: Highlights from the Biodiversity Heritage Library | Carolyn Sheffield (Biodiversity Heritage Library / Smithsonian Libraries)
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From left: Ulate, Carag, Xu, Karim, Sheffield |
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Shenzhen |
OTHER SYMPOSIA
Many familiar colleagues participated in the General Symposium "Green digitization: online botanical collections data answering real-world questions" organized by Shelley A James (Florida Museum of Natural History, USA) & Gil Nelson (Florida State University, USA). Talks at the symposium included:- Rebranding botanical collections: Global societal and biodiversity data needs for novel research | Shelley James
- Invasive or Not? A collection-based investigation of a historically unseen, persistent green algal bloom on Pacific coral reefs | Tom Schils [unable to present]
- Current status and the applications of online botanical collection data in China | Zheping Xu
- Virtual Herbaria tracking usage and benefits for biological collections an example from Australasia | David Cantrill
- Developing standards for scoring phenology from herbarium specimens | Jenn Yost
- From field collections to digital data: A workflow and digitization pipeline for reconstruction of a fossil flora | Dori Contreras [delivered in abstentia]
Artron (photo by Ivan Lee @ Artron) |
My second excursion was more on a botanical point. The Fairy Lake Botanical Garden is a 546 ha botanical garden which compares favorably with the great gardens of the world. First stop was the shade garden and butterfly pavilion. From there. down to the Fairy Lake and the palm area. We had the opportunity to visit the National Cycad Conservation Center. Fabulous collection of cycads from around the world and also a fossil collection. The Fairy Lake Botanical Garden also has a spectacular petrified forest area. Huge amounts of petrified wood that have been "planted" to look like a forest. Quite spectacular. Also, something that won't be seen again since export of petrified wood is now controlled. Also stopped in at the Shenzhen Paleontological Museum (some dinosaurs and nice trilobites, my favorite extinct invertebrate!).
The Congress featured a mid-week Gala that provided an opportunity to recognize the work of organizers and the program committee. The Gala also showcased a wide variety of Chinese entertainment that ranged from classical instrumentalists, to dancers and acrobats, to a Chinese doo-wop group. The accompanying buffet featured a number of tasty offerings.
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With Sandra Knapp and Peter Raven |
IN SUMMARY
The XIX International Botanical Congress was a unique opportunity for Smithsonian Libraries and the Biodiversity Heritage Library to meet with colleagues from around the world (and from down the hall) to discuss important issues related to plant science and how we, as librarians, can work with plant scientists to accelerate their work and to achieve the aspirational goals as outlined in the Shenzhen Declaration.
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XIX IBC 2017 at Night |
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