Gareth Richards
Dr Gareth RichardsEditor, CABI Compendium Program I’ve been an Editor in CABI’s Compendium Programme for the past seven years. With a degree in zoology and following up on my interests in fish (aquarium, sports, and I like eating them too), I completed my PhD (at Liverpool University, UK) on Gyrodactylus spp. parasites of poeciliid fishes…
Climate change clock ticking for wild relatives
International Biodiversity Day is here, and CGIAR brings us news that climate change threatens the wild relatives of cultivated potatoes and peanuts. The CGIAR study warns that 61% of wild peanut and 12% of wild potato species could be made extinct over the next half century. This poses a problem for plant breeders and GM…
1000 diseases mapped – a challenge is issued
Over at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog Jeremy decided to lay down a challenge to us here at CABI – make it possible to view the changes in distribution over time. We’d like to explain a little more about the history of the maps – we began publishing Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases in 1942 and…
Could it bee your mobile phone?
One serious cause of honey bee die-off in the US is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It leads to collapse of the hive often with complete absence of bees or only the queen and few other individuals remaining. A story in the Independent yesterday highlighted a theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other…
Where have all the bees gone?
Recent reports of disappearing bees may initially come as a relief to some of us, but this is actually very serious news considering bees pollinate a large proportion of our plants, including some food crops, and are keystone species in the ecosystem. Today the Bumblebee Conservation Trust invited the UK public to send in sightings…
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Hurtling around the planet, some 23 km above our heads, will be a network of 30 satellites making up the EU Galileo positioning system. The 675 kg spacecraft will carry the equipment necessary to potentially pinpoint the position of a transponder on the Earth’s surface with centimetre-accuracy. Assuming the project overcomes the economic and political…
1000 diseases mapped!
This month sees the publication of map number 1000 of Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases the authoritative source for accurate data on the worldwide distribution of plant diseases of economic or quarantine importance, published by CABI in association with the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO). First published in 1942, Distribution Maps of Plant…
Peat – sink or source
It was reported in the news today that the UK’s carbon emissions rose by 1.25% over the last year, while overall greenhouse gas emissions stayed on Kyoto targets. Many people won’t be too concerned by this rise, seeing that we are still well below the 1995 CO2 emissions and have reduced other greenhouse gases. I…
MUM’s not going to poison you
When I buy mineral water, though I don’t usually read the label, I generally expect it to contain the usual sodium, magnesium, calcium salts. Commercial bottled waters in most countries I have travelled to supply this information as a result of a legal requirement. What did come as a surprise was the approximate mineral composition…
Cataloguing Life
Today sees the launch of the Catalogue of Life, a taxonomic checklist of 1 million of the world’s organisms. The catalogue contains contributions from 47 databases constructed by more than 3000 taxonomists and species specialists from around the world. Jointly produced by Species 2000 and ITIS, this 7th edition encapsulates data from 1 million species…