WEBINAR| NUTS FROM ALENTEJO – The Contribution of Science to the Sustainability in the sector

The Technology Transfer Centre from CEBAL (CTT-CEBAL), within the framework of its mission to disseminate knowledge and transfer technology in Ferreira do Alentejo territory, a collaboration with Ferreira do Alentejo City Council, is promoting the webinar “NUTS FROM ALENTEJO – The Contribution of Science to the Sustainability in the sector”, in the scope of the celebration of Fascination of Plants Day 2021, which will be held on the 21^st of May 2021, online.

The webinar aims to be a place of interface between research and farmers, where several national researchers and knowledge promotion agents intend to demonstrate how the results generated in Research can contribute to the sustainability of nut sector in Alentejo, namely almond and walnut.

The themes in the webinar will explore the role of knowledge and technology transfer on the nuts setor, namely the characterization of the nuts culture in Ferreira do Alentejo territory, molecular biology tools for high phytosanitary quality tree fruits and agronomic and sustainable strategies for higher orchard productivities with preserved environmental biodiversity.

Participation is free, but registration is required using the form: https://forms.gle/6whPa1ctQRACZokK8.
The webinar access link will be available after registration.

CTT – CEBAL is a technology transfer unit created two years ago, through a partnership between the Ferreira do Alentejo City Council and the R&D centre CEBAL, with the purpose of getting Science closer to economic agents and the community in general, promoting knowledge and technology transfer and scientific literacy.

Contacts:

Liliana Marum – Researcher – Liliana.marum@cebal.pt

Rita Martins, Researcher and Technology Transfer agent –  rita.martins@cebal.pt

The Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) joins the International Fascination of Plants Day celebrations with a digital offer for all ages. If you are curious to know more about the importance of doing scientific research on plants for the sustainability of the planet and the infrastructures that allow this research, we invite you to watch a short video with scientist Paula Duque. This video uses 3D technology, allowing the visitor to explore a plant growth chamber by moving the video image in any direction. The youngest are also challenged to discover what conditions are necessary for the development and growth of plants, through experiments that can be done at home, following two episodes of the “Cientistas em Casa” series.

These multimedia resources are available only in Portuguese.

Link to videos:

Cientistas em Casa – Como nascem as plantas?

http://bit.ly/como_nascem_plantas

Cientistas em Casa – Para onde crescem as plantas?

http://bit.ly/crescimento_plantas

Video 3D – Paula Duque at IGC plant chamber

https://youtu.be/r5_EGMW3zaw

InnovPlantProtect (InPP) is organizing a paper chase game in Elvas Municipal Garden, for local 10^th graders to explore, identify and marvel at the garden’s diverse trees and their differentiating characteristics. Put together with D. Sancho II Secondary School, this event, with which the Municipality of Elvas associates itself, will take place in the morning of May 18, 2021 – Fascination of Plants Day. The Municipal Garden is the biggest green space in this small city of the Alentejo region where InPP is based. It holds specimens of Judas trees, lime trees, olive trees, cedars, orange trees, horse chestnut trees, mulberry trees, Casuarina, ash trees and carob trees, among many others. The activity will start at 8:30 AM and will be divided into 3 (three) 90-minutes time slots, for three different 10^th grade classes from D. Sancho II School: 8:30 – 10 AM / 10 – 11:30 AM / 11:30 AM – 1 PM. InPP researchers and teachers from the school will be on site to assist the participants. A different class, from the audiovisuals area, shall also participate, reporting on the event. At a later date, a similar activity shall be proposed to the class from the professional technical course in mixed farming.

The theme of Biodiversity is taught in the 10^th grade in Portugal. As a result of this activity, InPP, D. Sancho II Secondary School and the municipality of Elvas will continue collaborating to develop a physical signing system for the trees, with respective common names, scientific names and a QR code. The QR code, once read by a visitor’s smartphone, will give access to a complete data base about the trees of the Municipal Garden, including their identification, description, curiosities, history and mythology. This data base/ digital brochure is to be built by InPP researchers and the school’s students and teachers, and made available to the Municipality and all its secondary schools, in a project that should last until 2022.

Plants are amazing living things! They sustain our life and that of so many other living things! However, when removed from their natural areas of distribution (i.e., when they are introduced as exotic species), a small portion of these plant species have the ability to reveal invasive behavior, escaping man’s control and causing many problems. In fact, biological invasions (including by plants) are considered the 5th major threat to biodiversity globally, jeopardizing the balance of ecosystems and promoting high economic and public health losses. There is even a Target (15.8) of the Sustainable Development Goals that focuses on reducing the introduction and reducing the impact of invasive alien species on ecosystems and controlling them in priority areas. Still, it is worth pointing out that many exotic plants have positive effects (e.g., they are part of our food, filling many of our gardens and orchards, beautifying our gardens and parks, serving as raw material for many of the things we have in our homes), and that only a part becomes invasive. The worst is that these cause serious problems! Besides these imbalances – these ways of growing so much that they cause problems, which allow some of the exotic plants to reveal invasive behavior in the new places where they are taken – there are often fantastic characteristics of the species themselves that never cease to fascinate us. For example, production of gigantic amounts of seeds, seed banks that instead of accumulating in the soil accumulate in the plants, fascinating strategies for seeds to be dispersed effectively using us and other animals, astonishing vegetative reproduction capabilities, loss of interactions with animals, etc. This webinar – which we think will be fascinating – will be about these invasive plants and their characteristics. More information about invasive plants can be found at Invasoras.pt.

Register for the webinar at: https://forms.gle/fwUDr7VamN2unFcL6

The story of Estufa Fria de Lisboa began at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and started by chance, which quickly turned into a great dream and a great project for the capital. It is an almost secret garden in the center of Lisbon, in the shape of a greenhouse, which includes in its mission the awareness of the value of plants, with a view to the adoption of behaviors that promote the conservation of biodiversity, in a strategy of sustainability.

Thus, we invite you to be guided in this virtual visit to Estufa Fria, where we can find three different environments: cold greenhouse, warm greenhouse and sweet greenhouse, with about 300 species from several continents.

For virtual visit: https://vimeo.com/547206957/7c3cf093f5

Fruits are being increasingly used to treat diseases and alleviate their symptoms. Patents have been developed regarding their medicinal use. But what is present in fruits that makes them essential in a healthy lifestyle?

In this activity, we will go through the phenotypic diversity of fruits worldwide and their medicinal use. From Vaccinium macrocarpon, the American cranberry that is efficient in treating urinary tract infections to Opuntia spp., commonly called prickly pear, that diminishes triglycerides and cholesterol. The mysterious secondary compounds present in fruits will be revealed and quantified. Which fruit has higher antioxidant capacity? What about easy recipes to treat common health problems by using fruits?

Fruits are indeed fascinating. We will end our journey with a tour through paintings depicting fruits.

Zoom session link: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/6608020709

Organized by Prof. Ana Margarida Fortes, PhD student Helena Santos, and PhD candidate Rute Amaro.

Escola de Ciências da Universidade do Minho joins this celebration of the fascination of plants, with a diversified program of activities, prepared to bring the wonderful world of plants to pre-school, elementary and high school students, as well as to the general public.

The youngest will be able to participate in the contest ‘Who can bloom better?’, with creative works that illustrate all the beauty, diversity and magic of flowers. These works will be the object of a virtual exhibition, which will be premiered on the International Day of Fascination for Plants.

The program for the day also includes: the SolanArt virtual gallery, with illustrations representing species of the botanical family Solanaceae, present in the Portuguese and/or Brazilian flora; the sculpture exhibition ‘The Book: an obsolete illusory’, with works that the pre-school children of the Colégio D. Pedro V (Braga) produced, based on a reflection on the importance of trees as raw material in the origin of the book; the virtual exhibition ‘Looms of Nature’, prepared by students of pre-school education and 1st cycle of the same school, presenting a selection of works of art that will be displayed in the virtual gallery; and also the stage reading of ‘Harvested Leaves’, performed by the students and 4th grade teacher, also from Colégio D. Pedro V, with illustrations developed with eco-art techniques using sustainable natural materials such as earth, stone, leaves or branches.

But there’s more! High school students will learn that there is a diversity of microorganisms growing inside plants and their importance, as well as how to distinguish species with male and female flowers and the importance of the study of genes in understanding the reproductive success and productivity of these species. For the students of the 1st and 2nd cycle, the difference between the “bad” microbes, which cause plant diseases and are often visible on fruit, and the “good” microbes in agriculture will be explained. At the end of the afternoon, the lecture ‘Plants on…TOP!’, with Isabel Aguiar Pinto Mina, professor at the Department of Biology of the School of Sciences of UMinho, will address the importance of plants in natural terrestrial landscapes and the contribution that green coverings may provide in the naturalization of urban landscapes.

In Oeiras, ITQB NOVA joined forces with several partners (CIB, ANSEME, iBET, Green-it & InnovPlantProtect) to organize a full day of activities, where there will be something for everyone! The Scientific Illustration Workshop – Rabiscos em casa, from 2 PM to 3 PM (GMT+1), will be a dedicated class so that anyone interested can learn to draw the plants they have nearby. Live to your home or backyard, scientific illustrator Luísa Crisóstomo will share the tools necessary to know how to observe and transmit to paper the fascinating details of the plants that surround us. This activity is organized by ITQB NOVA and GREEN-IT, with the support of the Municipality of Oeiras. Registration is free but with limited places: https://forms.gle/8w8zned6rBhStXCSA

Does the food we eat actually come from nature? This will be the question explored in a debate, moderated by journalist Luís Ribeiro, which will include representatives from different areas, in a multidisciplinary panel composed by nutrition specialist Conceição Calhau, producer Gabriela Cruz, researcher Pedro Fevereiro and gastronomy professional José Maria Moreira. This activity is organized by ITQB NOVA, CIB, IBET, Green-it, InnovPlantProtect and ANSEME. Join the live event, starting at 6 PM (GMT+1): https://zoom.us/j/96914596892

May 18 will also be the day of the grand opening of the PlantLabSketching virtual exhibition!  “PlantLab Sketching” is an Art & Science itinerant exhibition of drawings produced in the context of an “urban sketching” activity organized in the Open Day 2017 of ITQB NOVA. It will now be available to everyone all over the world, with a 3D virtual tour, which will premiere in the Fascination of Plants Day. The original exhibition was organized by ITQB NOVA, CiB – Centro de Informação de Biotecnologia and the Foto & Sketchers 2 group. More soon at: https://www.itqb.unl.pt/

On this day it will even be possible to take a guided tour of the plant life in Estação Agronómica Nacional, in a face-to-face activity guided by ITQB NOVA and GREEN- IT researcher Ana Fortunato, for a limited number of people and according to all the safety rules. This event is organized with the support of the Municipality of Oeiras, and is a pre-event of the European Researchers Night – Reggae. Join us in Oeiras, for a very limited number of places: https://bit.ly/3aLutNx

Finally, the children at the pre-school “Grãos de Gente – Associação de Desenvolvimento Infantil” are already “doing their research” with scientific protocols shared by ITQB NOVA/iBET/GREEN-IT researchers. Over the next weeks, the children of four different classes will learn how rice and bean germinate and register how this growth is affected by different conditions, like real scientists. By 18 may they will have shared pictures, drawings and other records of this fascinating experiment with plants we know so well from our day to day lives. This event is organized with the support of the Municipality of Oeiras, and is a pre-event of the European Researchers Night – Reggae