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EXTINCTIONS. "Since AD 1500, 784 extinctions have been documented. However, since most extinctions are likely to go undocumented ... during the last century, between 20,000 and two million species have become extinct ... Up to 140,000 species per year may be the present rate of extinction." http://lnkd.in/dj_r4ry View in LinkedIn

PRESERVED AND REVIVED GENETIC MATERIAL is the topic for the next focus of blogs. Since nature's incredible evolutionary experiment of genetic diversity took billions of years to develop the current set of plants and animals, it is an enormous genetic and experimental loss when any of these species disappears. This is a peek at this field. http://lnkd.in/dCng3zh View in LinkedIn

DIMINISHING DIVERSITY. "The Holocene extinction event is a name customarily given to the widespread, ongoing mass extinction of species during the modern Holocene epoch ... This extinction event is sometimes referred to as the sixth extinction following the previous five extinction events." http://lnkd.in/dj_r4ry View in LinkedIn

KEEP THE EYE ON THE BALL. We have probably all had a bellyful of the misdeeds of an expedient military culture. No single country appears to be much more blames than the other. One purpose of this extended exercise was to put in riveting and memorable context the relative innocence of our garage biopunk biologists. View in LinkedIn

BANKING SEEDS is clearly not enough, and the seed may require frost, fire or fungi to activate from dormancy. And those cultivars whose dormancy survival is relatively short must be either refreshed with new seeds or replanted and fresh seed harvested; finally, the issue of having male and female for those species which crossbreed is another consideration. View in LinkedIn

PINE SEED ADAPTATION. "Seeds may also go into hibernation for other causes. Many pines have adapted to forest fires that destroy trees by creating pine cones that open in extreme heat (fire) and release seeds coated with a material that will break down only in extreme heat. The seeds hibernate until this happens." http://lnkd.in/ddyNBfG View in LinkedIn

ORCHID SEED SYMBIOSIS. "Orchids and a few other groups of plants ... depend on mycorrhizal fungi for nutrition during germination and the early growth of the seedling. Some terrestrial orchid seedlings, in fact, spend the first few years of their lives deriving energy from the fungi and do not produce green leaves." This can complicate GERMPLASM banks. http://lnkd.in/ddyNBfG View in LinkedIn

SEED DORMANCY. "Many species of plants have seeds that delay germination for many months or years, and some seeds can remain in the soil seed bank for more than 50 years before germination. Some seeds have a very long viability period, and the oldest documented germinating seed was nearly 2000 years old based on radiocarbon dating." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_dormancy View in LinkedIn

SEED LONGEVITY. "Although the most sensational claims for seed longevity are almost certainly bogus, seeds of Canna compacta apparently can live for at least 600 years." http://5e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=t&id=9 View in LinkedIn

TIME CAPSULES. "Desiccated seeds from a 6th century AD storage vessel recovered from Qasr Ibrîm, Egypt, were examined for the presence of lipids and nucleic acids. A remarkable degree of lipid preservation was discovered, the fatty acid and sterol profiles being very similar to those of modern radish seeds." http://lnkd.in/dhDu3zj View in LinkedIn