On the 24-25 of October the new NordForsk university hub ”NordPlant” was launched in Helsinki, Finland. Around 70 researchers joined the meeting. NordPlant is one out of a total of six Nordic University Hubs funded by NordForsk. NordPlant will address a number of focus areas: plant pathogens in new Nordic climate conditions, retained biomass production in climate change, forestry in automated phenotyping, microscopy and plant cell phenomics, modelling including remote sensing and ecosystem modelling and field phenotyping.
During the kick-off, facilities and research activities within the five NordPlant funding universities were presented. The spotlight then the turned to networks facilities and similar networks in Europe: Roland Pieruschka presented the progress with the EMPHASIS-PREP as well work within EPPN, Thomas Roitsch talked about 6P2 and Nordic Plant Phenotyping Network (NPPN) and Lukas Spichal High-throughput image-based shoot phenotyping in their facility in the Czech Republic.
Thereafter talks on affordable phenotyping (Shawn C. Kefauver), -omics to monitor the effects of climate change (Bruna Marques dos Santos), Climate Conditions on Berry Composition (Baoru Yang), Low-cost phenotyping down to the microscope scale (Markku Keinänen) and Field Phenotyping (Morten Lillemo) were held.
There was also possibilities to view posters and time for discussions around the four first focus groups:
- Phenotyping methods in field, greenhouse, and cell physiology (UHEL)
- Data handling and integration related to phenotyping and modelling by integrated climate and phenomics data (UCPH/LU)
- Emerging and increasing plant pathogens and pests in the Nordic countries (SLU)
- Abiotic stress relevant for future climate change in the Nordic countries (UiT)
At the end of the meeting a successful speed-dating session for scientists were held with no less than 87 requested one-to-one meetings. Here is the meeting schedule and you can sign up to the NordPlant newsletter.
Slides from presentations at the meeting
Erik Alexandersson – Welcome – what is NordPlant about?
Laura Jaakola – Climate chambers and the climates influence on plant quality
Aakash Chawade – The Biotron and possibilities with low-cost phenotyping
Lukas Spichal – High-throughput image-based shoot phenotyping at OloPhen (CzPPN)
Anna Maria Jönsson – Climate impact on phenology – remote sensing and models
Shawn C. Kefauver – Affordable RGB Phenotyping
Bruna Marques dos Santos – An Omics approach to investigate how climate change affects trees