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Master's dissertation
Contributions towards the consistent ID of powdery mildew (Erysiphales, Ascomycota) species
Powdery mildews (Erysiphales, Ascomycota) are an order of plant pathogenic fungi that infect 10,000 different angiosperm species, including important crop species. Traditional morphological methods of identifying powdery mildews can be difficult and time consuming, as different character states can be hard to distinguish. Molecular techniques using the ITS region fail...Shaw, Brandon
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Master's dissertation
Metabolomic and quality discrimination of Stemona tuberosa radix extracts using LC-MSn
Stemona tuberosa has been used as an antitussive medicine and insecticidal agent since the 6th century A.D. With the understanding of alkaloids as the active compounds, previous studies showed that profiles of alkaloids varied significantly, which raised the issue of quality control. Our study firstly demonstrated a considerable intraspecific chemical...Li, Bingyu
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Master's dissertation
Estimating Boyacá’s macrofungal diversity
Colombia is among the world’s most biodiverse countries, but despite being listed as the country with the second-highest number of flowering plants under the Convention on Biological Diversity, there is little information about the country’s fungal diversity. The area of study for this project, Boyacá, is particularly data-poor for fungi....Colson, Isobel
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Master's dissertation
Are orchid pollens recalcitrant?
It has been suggested that Orchidaceae species may have recalcitrant (desiccation sensitive) pollen. We explored drying responses in 23 species from the subfamily Epidendroideae by sampling the Kew living collection and drying the pollen to two conditions (70% RH, control for drying time) and 33% RH. Drying was for 3...Zhu, Yan
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Master's dissertation
Biogeography and conservation status of the endangered species Varronia bellonis
Varronia bellonis (Boraginaceae) is a threatened (Critically Endangered) species, endemic to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico where it’s restricted to the island’s western and central-north regions. Ongoing international collaboration is researching key aspects of the species phylogenetic placement, biogeography and conservation status to inform its conservation. Desk and field-based...Maldonado Castro, Anthony
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Master's dissertation
Revisiting generic concepts in the Teloschistaceae (lichenforming Ascomycota) using molecular phylogenetics, algorithmic taxa delimitation and molecular networks
In systematics, genera delimitation is constantly changing as taxonomic units above species level are not standardised. The Teloschistaceae, a diverse family of lichenised fungi, represents an extreme example of this where the number of genera has increased tenfold in the last decade. Many of these genera are based solely on...Llewellyn, Theo
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Master's dissertation
Revision of Chassalia (Rubiaceae) in Borneo
The genus Chassalia in Borneo is revised based on a morphological survey of herbarium specimens using classical taxonomic methods. The tribal placement and probable paraphyly of Chassaliaas currently delimited is reviewed. Previously four described species of Chassalia were known from Borneo with only one endemic species Chassalia psychotrioides . 12...Yu, Tianyi
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Master's dissertation
Explaining barkcloth properties through plant anatomy
Barkcloth, a material derived from the beaten inner bark of plants, is an ancient textile of widespread origins, recorded in Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, especially the Polynesian Islands. An antiquated craft, the practice of making barkcloth is kept alive by the cultural and spiritual significance it retains...Saad, Roberto
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Master's dissertation
Genome size in the UK Fabaceae flora and how this relates to their nitrogen and water tolerance
Genome size (GS) is defined as the total DNA amount in the unreplicated nucleus of an organism, often used synonymously with ‘1C value’. GS varies greatly in flowering plants. Nitrogen (N) and water are considered major limiting factors for plant growth, and their availability could correlate with plants’ GS. Nitrogen...Pollitt, Lauren
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Doctoral thesis
Automating the construction of higher order data representations from heterogeneous biodiversity datasets
Datasets created from large-scale specimen digitisation drive biodiversity research, but these are often heterogeneous: incomplete and fragmented. As aggregated data volumes increase, there have been calls to develop a “biodiversity knowledge graph” to better interconnect the data and support meta-analysis, particularly relating to the process of species description. This work...Nicolson, Nicky
Clustering, Specimen digitisation, Biodiversity informatics, Machine learning, and Record linkage