To address the challenges of climate change and the need to boost crop production with reduced and erratic inputs, we are focusing on plant root traits (architecture, structure, and function) as targets for a "Second Green Revolution."
High-throughput measurement of root traits in situ is technically challenging due to the opaque and highly heterogeneous nature of soil. I will present recent advances in root quantification techniques and results from an ongoing study examining the root traits conferring drought tolerance in pearl millet, a crucial food source across the sub-Saharan Sahel region of Africa.
When: Thursday, May 9 ยท 2 - 3:30 PM BST
Click here to access the webinar.
Speaker bio
Darren Wells is a Principal Research Fellow in Plant and Crop Biophysics at the University of Nottingham. Based in the School of Biosciences at Sutton Bonington, his research spans fundamental and applied plant biology questions using multi-scale and transdisciplinary techniques, including the development of novel phenotyping approaches at the cellular, organ, and whole-plant levels.
Darren is a co-director of the Hounsfield Facility for Rhizosphere Research, where he established the UK's first Laser Ablation Tomography platform for biological research. He is also a UK Scientific Representative for the EU project EMPHASIS, coordinating plant phenotyping activities across Europe, and co-leads the Network and Engagement strand of the PhenomUK scoping exercise to develop the proposed national plant phenotyping infrastructure.
For more information:
Advanced Plant Growth Centre / James Hutton Institute
[email protected]
www.apgc.org.uk