In a study published today in , researchers found that the distinctive pattern on the underside of the gargantuan leaves is the secret to the success of the giant Amazonian waterlily (genus Victoria).

The criss-cross framework makes up the vascular structure of the lily pad (or leaf), supporting its large surface area and keeping it afloat. The giant leaves can grow 40cm a day, reaching nearly 3m in diameter – ten times larger than any other species of waterlily – and carry the weight of a small child.

Dr Finn Box, Royal Society University Research Fellow, School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Manchester explained: “Leaf size is usually restricted mechanically by the expense of maintenance. A larger surface area for photosynthesis uses more of the plant’s energy to maintain. The structure and load-bearing properties of the giant Amazonian waterlily give it a competitive edge: high strength at low cost.”

Dr Chris Thorogood, Deputy Director at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden said: “I used to marvel at this extraordinary plant on childhood trips to botanic gardens. I remember wondering how on earth does it grow this big.”

The researchers compared the high-sided giant Amazonian waterlily leaf which has thick veins to Nymphaea – a smaller relation with disc-like leaves and a less prominent vascular system. Using in-situ experiments and mathematical modelling, the team found that the giant Amazonian waterlily leaves had a greater rigidity for a given volume of plant matter.

“Their strength allows giant Amazonian waterlily leaves to occupy a huge surface for light capture despite their low biomass relative to other waterlilies. That’s the secret to their success.” said Dr Thorogood.

Away from the glasshouse pond and back in its natural habitat – the quick-drying ephemeral pools of the Amazon basin – the giant Amazonian waterlily evolved with an advantage in the race among plants for space and light.

Its giant leaves unfold quickly and cheaply, jostling for position on the surface of the water, to create a mosaic of lily pads that block the light to any plants beneath.

The leaf’s flexible framework can withstand elastic deformation to avoid damage from wading birds. Small holes on the surface drain trapped rainwater. Spikes on the undercarriage of the leaf push other plants out of the way as the leaf unfolds and defend against nibbling fish.

‘”he leaves are truly multi-purpose,’ said Dr Thorogood. ‘The plants are well adapted to the challenges of their habitat.”

Despite captivating artists, architects, and Green Planet audiences alike, until now, little was known about the secret behind the size and strength of the floating giants.

“Remarkable structures in nature can help us to unlock design challenges in engineering. The form of these waterlilies could inspire giant floating platforms, such as solar panels in the ocean. There’s a lot we can learn from leaves.” concluded Dr Thorogood.

Read the published findings in

The Cruziohyla calcarifer, also known as the Splendid Tree Frog or Leaf Frog, originates from Ecuador and is extremely difficult to observe in the wild. Less than 50 adult specimens have ever been found, and five of its tadpoles are currently being housed at 91ֱ�� Museum.

Almost nothing has been known of the frogs’ breeding biology to date and a visual description of it in tadpole form has never existed.

Following captive breeding in Germany, an extensive piece of research led by Andrew Gray of Manchester Museum, which details of the tadpole’s unusual appearance, have now been published.

It is characterised in having a distinctive mouth shape and unusual markings.

Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology at 91ֱ�� Museum explained: “We’re delighted that we can now clearly visualise the tadpole of the Cruzihyla calcarifer for the first time ever. It has a couple of distinguishing features including what looks like the letter M on its back – so it’s very fitting that part of the research took place here in 91ֱ��!

“Once fully grown, the adult frog has black and orange flanks along the body, and a brilliant yellow surround to its beautiful grey eyes.

“This work represents a wonderful collaboration between a researcher from Germany, the museum in Paris, and a PHD student from The University of Manchester’s faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. It also exemplifies 91ֱ�� Museum’s mission to build understanding between cultures and a more sustainable world.”

This break-through follows another key scientific description at 91ֱ�� Museum, where a new species to science, Sylvia’s Leaf Frog was also described. The 91ֱ�� Museum was the first institution to breed that species, where the vivarium team recreate the exact conditions the frog enjoys in Costa Rica, Central America.

An international team led by researchers at The University of Manchester have discovered why some plants “live fast and die young” while others have long and healthy lives.

The study, published in , also helps us understand how plant diversity is maintained. This, in turn, could help improve nature conservation, natural habitat restoration and growing healthier crops.

It seems the answer is hidden beneath our feet in the complex relationships between soil microbes and plant roots. Scientists have long suspected that the key to explaining plant diversity lay with their enemies, including harmful fungi found in the soil. However, studying microbial life in soil has been notoriously difficult, earning itself the name of “black box” among scientists.

By using new molecular techniques and existing knowledge on what different fungi do in soil, the researchers found that some plants harboured dozens of different harmful fungi in their roots, while others kept harmful microbes at bay and attracted many beneficial fungi that boost plant health.

Lead author, , from the University’s said: “When walking through a flower-rich meadow, you might wonder why so many different plants grow together and no single plant dominates. We found that plant growth is strongly controlled by how many different harmful and beneficial fungi are attracted to plant roots.”

The researchers also found that the balance between harmful and beneficial fungi depended on plant lifestyle, providing an insight into why some plants live fast but die young while others grow slowly but enjoy a long life.

Dr Semchenko explains: “Like in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, some plants are slow to grow but enjoy long life by cooperating with beneficial fungi. Others grow fast and are initially successful, but then they are brought down by diseases caused by harmful fungi.”

As with humans, diet is also important for plant health. The scientists found that soils with plentiful nutrients can support lush plant growth, but also shift the balance from many beneficial fungi to those causing disease.

, who is Professor of Ecology at The University of Manchester, said: “While these results come from grasslands in northern England, it is likely that the same mechanisms occur in other ecosystems around the world, but more tests are needed to confirm this.”

These results could pave way to new approaches in agriculture to set microbial balance right for the production of healthy crops through tipping the balance towards beneficial rather than harmful microbes in the root zone of plants.

Dr Semchenko added: “Soil microbes are known to be very sensitive to human interference such as intensive agriculture and our findings suggest that negative impacts on soil microbes may have knock-on effects on the conservation of plant diversity.”

The study was coordinated by The University of Manchester and involved collaboration between nine institutions including Universities of Colorado, Tartu, Berlin, Edinburgh and Lancaster.

A three-year experiment by ecologists from The University of Manchester, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Lancaster University has revealed how our iconic chalk grasslands - damaged by intensive farming - could be regenerated.

The study of an area on Salisbury Plain, degraded by years of cultivation, revealed how combinations of plants based on their size and shape could restore soil fertility in chalk grasslands.

Up to 40 plant species—including orchids and wildflowers- grow in a square meter of typical British chalk grassland, attracting insects and rare butterflies and birds. It also acts as an important carbon store, which helps mitigate against the effects of climate change.

But because of intensive farming, tourism and housing, Britain has lost 80% of its chalk grassland since the Second World War.

The research, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and published in the journal Ecology, showed certain characteristics or traits of plants play a critical role in regeneration of soil fertility.

“Our study showed the structure and depth of plant roots, as well as plant height, could tell us how long it may take for grassland to recover from degradation caused by intensive farming”, said Dr Ellen Fry, from The University of Manchester, the lead author of the study.

“We also found that a mixture of deep and shallow roots is crucial to enable the grassland to buffer severe drought, which is becoming increasingly common with climate change.

“The key to restoration is to ensure that the soil microbial community and nutrient and water use are restored and protected against climate change, as well as the plant species.

“If, at least during early stages of restoration, plant species are sown based on their traits, we argue that restoration of functions such as water and nutrient cycling could occur as quickly as between 20 and 30 years.”

The study showed that plants less than about 10cm tall were best for soil quality, and that deep tap root systems are also essential for boosting the health of soil.

In contrast, taller plants, even though they grow quicker, are poorly adapted to the hardships chalk imposes, particularly because they are likely to have higher requirements for nutrients and water.

Dr Fry added: “Deep tap roots are crucial for withstanding drought conditions and maintaining nutrient cycling. However, bushy fibrous root systems, like those seen in many grasses, are more important for high rates of nutrient cycling and linking with the microbial community.

“Simply weeding out plants which are too dominant is also highly likely to help reinstate a well-functioning and resilient ecosystem.

“Of course, if factors such as the use of pesticides, overgrazing and the impact of tourism and housing still continue to be a factor, our chalk grasslands will still be under threat. I hope that will one day be reversed.”

Professor Richard Bardgett, one of the co-authors of the study, said: “These results are important because they suggest that we can design plant communities, based on knowledge about how they affect soil, to accelerate the recovery of degraded soils.”

Professor James Bullock, from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, added: “Habitat restoration is at the heart of attempts to reverse biodiversity losses, but our study also shows how we might use restoration to make ecological systems more resilient to climate change and other threats.”

The paper ‘Soil multifunctionality and drought resistance are determined by plant structural traits in restoring grassland’ is published in Ecology and available . The DOI for this article is: 10.1002/ecy.2437

Bees could be at risk from climate change because more frequent droughts could cause plants to produce fewer flowers, new research shows.

Droughts are expected to become more common and more intense in many parts of the world, and researchers studied the impact on flowering plants using a field experiment.

They found that drought roughly halved the overall number of flowers. This means less food for bees and other pollinators, which visit flowers for the nectar and pollen that they provide.

The research was carried out by scientists at the Universities of Exeter and 91ֱ��, and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

“The plants we examined responded to drought in various ways, from producing fewer flowers to producing flowers that contained no nectar,” said lead researcher , of the on the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

“But overall there was a very clear reduction in the number of flowers that were available – and obviously this means less food for flower-visiting insects such as bees.”

Bees are already under pressure from a variety of threats including habitat loss, the use of particular pesticides, and the spread of diseases and alien species.

“Not only are these insects vital as pollinators of crops and wild plants, but they also provide food for many birds and mammals,” said joint lead researcher , also of the University of Exeter.

The study took place in Wiltshire on chalk grassland, which is an important habitat for UK pollinator species. The pl

ant species studied included meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis), common sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) and selfheal (Prunella vulgaris).

“Previous studies of the impacts of drought on flowers and bees have looked at individual species, often in the laboratory, but we used an experiment with rain shelters to examine the effects on real communities of plant species living in chalk grassland,” said Dr Ellen Fry from The University of Manchester, who set up the experiment.

“The level of drought that we looked at was calculated to be a rare event, but with climate change such droughts are expected to become much more common.”

“Evidence is mounting that extreme weather events, such as drought, can have profound and long lasting impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Our results show that these effects also extend to flowering plants, which could have knock on consequences for pollinators and other flower visitors,” said , one of the project investigators.

The findings suggest that chalk grasslands may support lower pollinator populations in the future, but the scientists warn that the results are likely to be broadly applicable to other regions and habitats.

The research was part of the Wessex Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability project, and was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

The paper, published in the journal Global Change Biology, is entitled: “Drought reduces floral resources for pollinators.”