Tag: biodiversityPage 3 of 5

COP26 – What Now?

It was a heady fortnight of frantic networking and tough negotiating in the Glasgow rain. But did the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations…

RBGE 1970-2020

Rediscovering a fifty-year old article prompted us to explore RBGE’s last half-century at the forefront of science, conservation, horticulture and learning. 2020 will inevitably go down in history…

Climate change threatens the survival of one of Scotland’s most biodiverse marine habitats

Maerl beds are one of the world’s most biodiverse habitats – but most people haven’t even heard of them! Maerl, a free-living red seaweed with a hard calcium…

Learning on the job: students make valuable scientific discoveries

“Hey Zoë, we’ve found a Pinguicula!” “I doubt it, they don’t grow in Belize.” “Well, this is definitely a Pinguicula.” With that conversation shouted across a hillside, we…

Hot, steep and spiny – Exploring the forgotten forests of Latin America

Working in the dry forests of the Marañón valley in Peru can be pretty intense. Firstly, as you might expect, it can get exceptionally hot. While clouds might…

Climate Emergency: Tropical Forests Approach Tipping Point

RBGE scientists contribute to a landmark study suggesting that increasing global temperatures may cause both Amazon and African rainforests to become net sources, rather than sinks, of carbon…

Evidence, action, inspiration – how nature-based solutions help combat the climate emergency

This week (7th-13th October 2019) is Scotland’s Climate Week, which this year comes at a decisive time for our planet, its people and its biodiversity. As UN Secretary-General…

Orchid appears in Living Lawn

Next to the Front Range and within sight of the Library and Herbarium two small squares of lawn have been transformed into flower-rich ‘living lawns’ as part of…

Enlisting the crowd to unlock our specimen data!

The herbarium at RBGE holds around 3 million herbarium specimens. Each specimen consists of pressed plant material and a collection label mounted on archival card. They are used…

The Urban Kingfisher

One of our wildlife recorders, Lucy Cooke, gives you tips on how to spot kingfishers in the city centre!

The Big Botanics BioBlitz and the 1000th Species

A damselfly basking in the sun photographed Philip Gillespie. One of the ways the garden has already celebrated nature and biodiversity this year was to hold the Big…

Upcoming Talks during the Big Botanics BioBlitz this Saturday

As part of our BioBlitz festivities, we are hosting four fabulous speakers to talk on a range of wildlife-related topics.   999 and counting… Recording Biodiversity at RBGE…

The Big Botanics BioBlitz presents Botanics Wild

  To coincide with our wonderful event taking place on Saturday the 9th of June, the Big Botanics Bioblitz, we present, Botanics Wild. Two fantastic opportunities to experience…

Big Botanics BioBlitz

Saturday the 9th of June Calling nature enthusiasts, experts, recorders, learners! Can you help us to discover and celebrate the biodiversity of the Edinburgh garden? RBGE is hosting…

The Sweet Chestnut project (The Afterlife of a Tree)

Building on the biodiversity the garden supports  Regular visitors to the garden will have noticed a mature Sweet Chestnut in the later stages of its life with only a…

Update: North Sulawesi Fieldwork, continued…

Following the recent fieldwork update from Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park, this report comes from the Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve, part of complex of volcanoes in the Bolaang…

Update: North Sulawesi Fieldwork

One week into the North Sulawesi (Indonesia) expedition, the team has successfully completed collecting at the first locality, Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park. The park is accessed by…

Plant Hunting in the Tropics – preparations for fieldwork in Indonesia

This year, RBGE embarked on a 2 year collaborative project with Indonesia’s Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to work towards ‘Flora Malesiana’ taxonomic accounts for Begoniaceae, Gesneriaceae, Sapotaceae and…

Botanics Sparrowhawks – Easter Trail Bird Biodiversity

Happy Easter everyone! Just to let you know it’s still pretty quiet with the sparrowhawks although I have seen some dotting about so hopefully nesting will be underway…

Moth trapping at the Garden: Two new records

Monitoring the wildlife in the Garden is an ongoing task that helps us understand the value of gardens, and other amenity greenspaces, for all sorts of different animals….