Variety is not only the spice of life, it’s critical to life on this planet. In the world of plants and animals -- our world -- variety is known as biodiversity.
The United Nations has designated 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity to draw attention to the importance of plants and animals to “our wellbeing, our societies, even to our economies”, says Dr. David Galbraith, head of science at Royal Botanical Gardens.
To get the message across, RBG has exciting exhibits, special events, research events and symposiums planned throughout the Year of Biodiversity. A major public event running from Feb. 6 to April 11 2010, is Amazon Voyage, a special exhibit, featuring live animal displays and interactive components. As Dr. Galbraith puts it, RBG isn’t just about the roses and petunias that people like to visit, “we’re also a research and educational centre about the world of plants”.
Admitting that biodiversity sounds like a buzz word, the scientist says it’s a term that came out of the 1980s that describes the variety of life, whether it’s variety of species, variety within a species or variety within individuals. He cites the example of “higher plants or flowering plants” that are represented by 400,000 species. Of these, Dr. Galbraith says, a significant number are endangered and a proportion has not yet been documented by science.
Biodiversity also plays out in the variety between ecosystems and habitat from wetlands to forests to savannas.
“It’s the underpinning for our wellbeing, our economy, food, fibres, and medicines. It’s critical for human life,” explains Dr. Galbraith.
One of the functions of RBG is to maintain a data base of plants in its collection, as well as the ones that grow wild on the property that represent many wild species native to this area of Southern Ontario. Dr. Galbraith says RBG is like a horticultural reference library that also includes a herbarium, a collection of dried and pressed plants. Some samples date back to the early 1800s and, according to Dr. Galbraith, they’ll be available for reference hundreds of years from now.
Thriving in RBG’s nature sanctuaries are species that represent one quarter of the nation’s wild plants and about 40 per cent of plant species found in Ontario. In conjunction with the University of Guelph, RBG is collecting DNA from each species that will be identified by a bar coding system as part of the International Barcode of Life Initiative.
To find out more about Royal Botanical Gardens and for links to information about biodiversity, events, conservation and science, visit the website at
www.rgb.ca. For details on the International Year of Biodiversity, go to
www.cbd.int.
