University of Helsinki
Prof. Nigel Paul visited our group in Viikki last Thursday. He gave a very interesting talk about his views on UV-B research and the directions into which he thinks it should move. He contrasted the old viewpoint of seeing UV-B as mainly a source of damage to plants and the new viewpoint of considering UV-B mainly as an environmental signal regulating plant growth and performance. From that he moved on to describe how we can take advantage of the regulatory responses in the management of crops grown under plastic films. He showed some very interesting examples of results from his experiments.
During the discussion Tapani Koskela from the Finnish Meteorological Institute made some comments relating to the uncertainties inherent in forecasts of future UV-B levels. There was also discussion about possible roles of UV-B in the regulation of plant behaviour in their natural environment.
Over lunch and in the afternoon most of the SenPEP members had the opportunity to discuss their research with Nigel.