Research work being carried out at the National Botanic Garden of Wales is helping us to understand more about honey bees and other pollinators. Habitat loss, pests, disease and climate change have caused pollinating insects to decline but work by the Garden’s scientists is aiming to help the insect fight back.
You can find out all about this vital work at a free event on Thursday (November 19) when the Garden’s Head of Science, Dr Natasha de Vere will give a free public lecture entitled: ‘Barcode UK: Saving plants and pollinators using DNA barcoding’.
The event is in the Faraday Lecture Theatre, Swansea University Singleton Campus, Swansea (SA2 8PP) and starts at 7pm
* Dr Natasha de Vere is Head of Science at the National Botanic Garden of Wales and Senior Lecturer in Botany at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University. She is the lead scientist in the research project to identify and barcode the DNA of every flowering plant in Wales.
* DNA barcoding uses small sections of DNA to identify species. It allows us to identifiy plants from the tiniest fragment of leaf, seed or from pollen grains. Initiatives are under way all over the world to DNA barcode plants and animals, and Natasha led the project that made Wales the first nation in the world to have a DNA barcoded flora.
This event is organised by The Royal Institution of South Wales (Friends of Swansea Museum) in association with Swansea University.