Science engagement in South Africa

Learners from grades 9 to 12 surrounded our Science Week table in the township Khaye-litsha, an impoverished community near Cape Town in South Africa. We were conducting outreach for our project Cape Citizen Science (http://citsci.co.za/), an initiative to engage nonscientists in plant disease research in a global biodiversity hotspot.http://www.sciencemag.orghj2018Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI

Two novel Phytophthora species from the southern tip of Africa

The microbial diversity associated with natural vegetation in the Greater Cape Floristic Region of South Africa is largely unexplored. As part of the Cape Citizen Science programme and independent research, surveys were conducted between 2015 and 2019 to catalogue the diversity of Phytophthora species associated with many plant species endemic to this region. Using soil and water baiting techniques, six isolates of the provisionally described Phytophthora taxon emzansi were recovered, together with three isolates of an undescribed Phytophthora species. In this study, we used both molecular and morphological data to describe these Phytophthora species. Isolates of P. emzansi sp. nov. and P. afrocarpa sp. nov. formed monophyletic lineages within Phytophthora Clades 2 and 10, respectively. Phytophthora emzansi sp. nov. and P. capensis are sister species residing in the P. citricola species complex, and both are homothallic. Phytophthora afrocarpa sp. nov. is a sister species to P. gallica, and both these taxa are sexually sterile. The present study augments our knowledge of the unique Phytophthora species associated with the native vegetation of southern Africa.Crowd-funding initiative of Joseph M. Hulbert, the University of Pretoria, members of the Tree Protection Cooperative Programme (TPCP), DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Plant Health Biotechnology (CPHB) South Africa and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), South Africa.http://link.springer.com/journal/11557hj2022BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil Scienc

The problem with delineating narrow criteria for citizen science

No abstract available.http://www.pnas.org2020-01-30hj2019Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI

The role of citizen science in addressing grand challenges in food and agriculture research

The power of citizen science to contribute to both science and society is gaining increased recognition, particularly in physics and biology. Although there is a long history of public engagement in agriculture and food science, the term ‘citizen science’ has rarely been applied to these efforts. Similarly, in the emerging field of citizen science, most new citizen science projects do not focus on food or agriculture. Here, we convened thought leaders from a broad range of fields related to citizen science, agriculture, and food science to highlight key opportunities for bridging these overlapping yet disconnected communities/fields and identify ways to leverage their respective strengths. Specifically, we show that (i) citizen science projects are addressing many grand challenges facing our food systems, as outlined by the United States National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as broader Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations Development Programme, (ii) there exist emerging opportunities and unique challenges for citizen science in agriculture/food research, and (iii) the greatest opportunities for the development of citizen science projects in agriculture and food science will be gained by using the existing infrastructure and tools of Extension programmes and through the engagement of urban communities. Further, we argue there is no better time to foster greater collaboration between these fields given the trend of shrinking Extension programmes, the increasing need to apply innovative solutions to address rising demands on agricultural systems, and the exponential growth of the field of citizen science.This working group was partially funded from the NCSU Plant Sciences Initiative, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences ‘Big Ideas’ grant, National Science Foundation grant to R.R.D. (NSF no. 1319293), and a United States Department of Food and Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant to S.F.R., USDA-NIFA Post Doctoral Fellowships grant no. 2017-67012-26999.http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.orghj2018Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI

Botanical gardens provide valuable baseline Phytophthora diversity data

Phytophthora species are important plant pathogens especially due to their ability to invade and change ecosystems. However, information regarding their diversity and distribution is not available in many parts of the world. In these areas, surveys of botanical gardens can provide opportunities to detect novel plant-microbe interactions on both indigenous and exotic plants. Three botanical gardens and one historical urban garden in the Western Cape Province of South Africa were surveyed to establish baseline information of Phytophthora species diversity in the Cape Floristic Region. Eight described species (P. amnicola, P. asparagi, P. capensis, P. cinnamomi, P. chlamydospora, P. lacustris, P. multivora and P. tropicalis), the known but as yet unnamed P. sp. emzansi and 3 putative hybrids were recovered. Forty eight of 103 samples collected were positive for Phytophthora species and P multivora was the most frequently isolated species. Three species (P. amnicola, P. asparagi and P. tropicalis) had not previously been reported in South Africa, although hybrid progeny of P. amincola had been found in two previous studies. These results highlight the value of botanical gardens as areas for baseline data collection and early warning systems.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug2020-12-01hj2019Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)Plant Production and Soil Scienc

Harmonising the fields of invasion science and forest pathology

Invasive alien species are widely recognised as significant drivers of global environmental change, with far reaching ecological and socio-economic impacts. The trend of continuous increases in first records, with no apparent sign of saturation, is consistent across all taxonomic groups. However, taxonomic biases exist in the extent to which invasion processes have been studied. Invasive forest pathogens have caused, and they continue to result in dramatic damage to natural forests and woody ecosystems, yet their impacts are substantially underrepresented in the invasion science literature. Conversely, most studies of forest pathogens have been undertaken in the absence of a connection to the frameworks developed and used to study biological invasions. We believe this is, in part, a consequence of the mechanistic approach of the discipline of forest pathology; one that has been inherited from the broader discipline of plant pathology. Rather than investigating the origins of, and the processes driving the arrival of invasive microorganisms, the focus of pathologists is generally to investigate specific interactions between hosts and pathogens, with an emphasis on controlling the resulting disease problems. In contrast, central to the field of invasion science, which finds its roots in ecology, is the development and testing of general concepts and frameworks. The lack of knowledge of microbial biodiversity and ecology, speciation and geographic origin present challenges in understanding invasive forest pathogens under existing frameworks, and there is a need to address this shortfall. Advances in molecular technologies such as gene and genome sequencing and metagenomics studies have increased the “visibility” of microorganisms. We consider whether these technologies are being adequately applied to address the gaps between forest pathology and invasion science. We also interrogate the extent to which the two fields stand to gain by becoming more closely linked.This paper emerged from a workshop on ‘Frameworks used in Invasion Science’ hosted by the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology in Stellenbosch, South Africa, 11–13 November 2019.The National Research Foundation of South Africa and Stellenbosch University.http://www.pensoft.net/journals/neobiotaam2021BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil Scienc

Urban environments provide opportunities for early detections of Phytophthora invasions

Globalization has increased the frequency of inadvertent introductions of plant pathogens. Many catastrophic invasions of both natural and agricultural systems have been initiated through anthropogenic dissemination pathways. Phytophthora species are a group of invasive plant pathogens causing many of the most important plant disease epidemics. A review of Phytophthora species descriptions published following the publication of the first DNA-based Phytophthora phylogeny was conducted to highlight patterns of recent introductions and to provide insights for early pathogen detection initiatives. Seventy-two publications from 2001 to 2016 describing 98 Phytophthora species were evaluated. Of the 91 species with data on geographic location isolation, 22% were described from type specimens isolated from urban environments, 33% from agricultural environments and 45% from natural environments. Within the urban environment, ornamental plant trading nurseries were the most important sources. Specifically, for Phytophthora ramorum, a species causing multiple epidemics globally, the largest proportion of first report publications were from urban environments, including nurseries. We therefore suggest that detection programs for invasive plant pathogens within the urban environment would be valuable. In this regard, specialized monitoring and citizen science projects that target urban areas where live plant-trading industries are concentrated would be particularly effective to both promote early detection and to facilitate a rapid response to new species invasions.An early version of this paper was presented at a workshop on ‘Non-native species in urban environments’ hosted and funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology (C⋅I⋅B) in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in November 2016.The Department of Science and Technology (DST)-National Research Foundation (NRF) Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB; http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/research-groups/dst-nrf-centre-of-excellence-in-tree-health-biotechnology) and also from support contributed to the crowd-funding campaign “Discovering Plant Destroyers in South Africa with Citizen Science” (doi: 10.18258/2066).http://link.springer.com/journal/105302018-12-23hj2018Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI