Scientists from Altai State University presented the latest developments in the field of botany in St. Petersburg

September 10 to 15, the botanical community of the country and the world gathered in St. Petersburg. The most significant events took place at Komarov Botanical Institute of Russian Academy of Science. This is the anniversary, fifteenth Delegate Congress of the Russian Botanical Society, the conference “Russian Botany in a Changing World”, the VI Council of Botanical Gardens of the CIS Countries under the International Association of the Academy of Sciences (IAAS) and the conference “Fundamental and Applied Problems of Botany Developed in Botanical Gardens in the 21st Century.”

Delegations from Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Abkhazia, Bulgaria and Russia arrived at the VI Council of Botanical Gardens of the CIS Countries at the International Association of the Academy of Sciences (IAAS).

“The importance of botanical gardens is currently increasing. The creation and development of bioresource collections in the country is directly related to scientific and applied problems that are being solved in national and foreign botanical gardens. These are tasks such as expanding collection funds, developing new approaches to the introduction of plants, biotechnological and bioengineering methods for studying and preserving wild flora, etc.,” notes Alexander Shmakov, a participant in the anniversary events, honorary professor of Altai State University.

It should be noted that Alexander Shmakov was once again elected as a member of the Presidium of the Russian Botanical Society. The new composition of the Presidium will be in force until 2028.

A significant event was the presentation of a commemorative medal to the director of the South Siberian Botanical Garden of Altai State University, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the assignment of Imperial status to the Botanical Garden on the Aptekarsky Island of St. Petersburg.

On the first day of the XV Delegates’ Congress of the RBO and the conference “Russian Botany in a Changing World,” the Altai Branch of the RBO gave a plenary report on the topic “ALTB Herbarium in the Digital Age: Results and Prospects” (by A.V. Vaganov and A.I. Shmakov).

“In our report, we drew the attention of researchers to the scientific and educational projects and initiatives of our research team. They are connected with the use of modern digital solutions and genetic technologies in botany, based on the potential of the largest herbarium collection in Altai, ALTB. These are such landmark projects as the international network platform “Flora of Altai”, the “Genome Altai Plants” project, implemented with the BIN RAS under the Federal program “Bioresource Collections”, the “ALTB Digital Herbarium” dataset in GBIF, “Virtual Laboratory for Data Processing and Analysis” on Biodiversity” under the “Priority 2030” program at Altai State University, the international educational project “BioDATA Advanced” and other initiatives,” comments Alexey Vaganov, a scientist from Altai State University.

Significant development of the ALTB Digital Herbarium is provided by the Russian Science Foundation project “Study of phytodiversity and genetic resources of the Altai mountainous country based on big data,” which made it possible to collect more than 230 citations of Altai State University data sets in GBIF by 2023.

At the sectional sessions, Marina Silantieva, professor from AltSU made a report “Area, ecotopic and phytocenotic occurrence of common hops in the south of Western Siberia” and Polina Gudkova, an associate professor from AlySU spoke about “Cereals of Altai Krai.”

“Our report aroused keen interest, since it raised questions and problems that botanists need to solve to ensure food security in Russia and the development of such a branch of Russian agriculture as hop growing. We received proposals for cooperation from colleagues from St. Petersburg, Tyumen, the Republic of Belarus and Abkhazia,” says professor Marina Silantieva.