Botanists are disappearing – just when the world needs them most

UngulateNerd92

UngulateNerd92

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Can you recall any of the plants you saw today?

Probably not. As a species, we are not programmed to recognize and register everything we see within our field of vision. This would be an overwhelming amount of information for our brains to process.

You can however, with a little time and practice, be trained to read the plants around you: to recognize which species they belong to and their names, their relationships with other organisms and what they are telling you about the environment they live in. This is to develop what some call a natural literacy.

Most people suffer from what is commonly known as “plant blindness”, a term coined by US botanists Elisabeth Schussler and James Wandersee. They described it as “the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment”. Unless taught, people don’t tend to see plants – despite the fact that at any given moment, there is likely to be a plant – or something made by plants – nearby.

In our latest study, my fellow researchers and I found that people are not only less aware of plants through a lack of exposure and a loss of knowledge, but demand for an education in botany and opportunities to study it in the UK have diminished too.

The extinction of botanical education

Botany, once a compulsory component of many biology degrees and school programmes, is disappearing fast. It has been over a decade since a student was enrolled in a botany degree in the UK. We believe there has been a gradual erosion of knowledge about plants among biology graduates and the general public as a result.

Botanists are disappearing – just when the world needs them most
 
In universities around the globe studies in botany have been phased out in favor of "plant science." Sounds like rebranding but the fields are actually different. A plant sci major may be able to genetically modify a crop plant but she'd be useless at identifying new plants in the field or doing field work. Both are important. And don't get me started on what has happened in the study of horticulture!
 
Zooplantman said:
In universities around the globe studies in botany have been phased out in favor of "plant science." Sounds like rebranding but the fields are actually different. A plant sci major may be able to genetically modify a crop plant but she'd be useless at identifying new plants in the field or doing field work. Both are important. And don't get me started on what has happened in the study of horticulture!
Click to expand...

Thank you for pointing that out. That is especially important being how severe our climate change and biodiversity loss crisis are....
 
Zooplantman said:
In universities around the globe studies in botany have been phased out in favor of "plant science." Sounds like rebranding but the fields are actually different. A plant sci major may be able to genetically modify a crop plant but she'd be useless at identifying new plants in the field or doing field work. Both are important. And don't get me started on what has happened in the study of horticulture!
Click to expand...

If you don't mind my asking, is your degree in botany?
 
Here is a relevant paper.

The botanical education extinction and the fall of plant awareness

Abstract

Civilization is dependent upon plants for survival. Plants permeate our every moment and our relationship with them will dictate how we will manage the threats of climate change and ecological collapse defining the Anthropocene. Yet, despite the significance of plants and the critical role they have played in shaping ecosystems, civilizations, and human cultures, many people are now disconnected from the botanical world. Students are presented with little plant content, particularly identification, compared with animal content. Consequently, we are producing few plant scientists and educating fewer scientists about plants. This drives a self-accelerating cycle we term
the extinction of botanical education. A process of knowledge erosion, that in this instance contributes to our separation from the natural world, makes us blind to the biodiversity crisis and inhibits our ability to restore it. We argue that neglecting the importance of plants within education threatens the foundations of industries and professions that rely on this knowledge. Furthermore, this extinction of botanical education creates an existential threat: Without the skills to fully comprehend the scale of and solutions to human-induced global change, how do we as a society combat it? We present key research agendas that will enable us to reverse the extinction of botanical education and highlight the critical role plants play on the global stage.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.9019#.Y8nM29RqcAo.linkedin
 
Here is a relevant podcast.

Podcast: Botanists are disappearing at a critical time
  • The expansive field of botany could be facing a dearth of skilled experts due to a growing lack of awareness of plants, interest in studying them, and fewer educational opportunities to do so.
  • Humans depend upon plants for basic survival needs, such as food, oxygen, and daily household products, but fewer students are receiving enough instruction to enable them to do much beyond basic identification.
  • This lack of educational opportunities to study plants – and a general lack of interest in them – is leading to less ‘plant awareness’ and could endanger society’s ability to address existential problems like biodiversity loss and even climate change.
  • The University of Leeds’s Sebastian Stroud joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about his research highlighting this increasing lack of plant literacy, the consequences of it, and what can be done to turn it around.

    An early-career botanist joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss his group’s recent study of the decrease in plant awareness and educational opportunities to study botany. A Ph.D. candidate in Urban Ecology and Botany at the University of Leeds, Sebastian Stroud explains why this trend — which is not unique to the U.K. — could vastly reduce the number of skilled botanists, and our ability to address the impacts of human-induced global change. “This situation drives us ever closer to losing our ability to build a sustainable and ecologically robust future,” Stroud and his study co-authors argue.
https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...ists-are-disappearing-at-a-critical-time/amp/
 
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