"With our wide variety of different topics and disciplines, we wanted to share our experiences and knowledge of plant evolution and discuss how we can more intensively explore and better understand its impacts in the context of global change in the future" said KPC member and workshop organiser Prof. Birgit Classen.
Evolution of the way of living on land
The event was co-sponsored by the DFG priority program MAdLand, of which Prof. Classen and her group are members. Coordinated by Prof. Stefan Rensing (University of Freiburg), participating researchers of the MAdLand initiative study the transition of plant life from water to land. Around 500 million years ago, this represented a major event in the evolution of plants and kick-started an explosion in plant diversity, resulting in a variety of mechanisms and processes equipping plants for life on land. The discussion reflected that the two hypotheses that freshwater streptophyte algae were pre-adapted to life on land or that streptophyte algae were terrestrial from the beginning and returned to freshwater are still under debate.
"Research into the origins of land plants also allows valuable conclusions to be drawn about today's plant species and their ability to adapt to environmental changes in the present," emphasized Dr. Lukas Pfeifer, MAdLand postdoc in Prof. Classen’s research group.
A centre piece of the first day was a series of nineteen posters designed by scientist and illustrator Mona Schreiber (University of Marburg) in the framework of the MAdLand program visually explaining the evolution of plants. The topics of the keynote and short talks and poster titles can be seen in the programme (pdf).
Algae, seagrasses and crops
At the second day, the meeting focussed especially on marine organisms (brown algae and seagrasses) as well as on crop plants necessary for human nutrition. This was accompanied by scientific posters of young researchers. Five junior scientists who gave talks received travel grants by the DBG, our German Society for Plant Sciences.
Other highlights of the workshop included an evening get-together in the University Botanical Gardens with food and drinks.
“We are really proud to have welcomed so many plant scientists to Kiel for this event” concluded workshop co-organiser and KPC spokesperson Prof. Eva Stukenbrock. “A more comprehensive understanding of how plants adapted to new environments and conditions in the past is crucial as we tackle issues such as maintaining food security and crop health in times of global change. There is a lot of great plant science being done in Kiel and it was fantastic to experience the lively exchange between participants across disciplines.”
--
In August 2023
Prof. Dr. Birgit Classen, University of Kiel, Kiel Plant Centre, Kiel Plant Glycan Group