Roles of Seed Banks and Zoos in Conservation and the Key Concepts Required When Designing Reserve

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Roles of seed banks and zoos in conservation and the key concepts required when designing reserve In this essay, I will be talking about the roles of zoos and seed banks in conservation and the designs of reserves. There are a few roles of zoos and banks which both have cons and pros. There are 4 concepts to designing a reserve which are size, shape, links and fragmentation. A seed bank is a zoo for plants. There are 2 located in the UK. One in located in West London and it is called Kew. Plants are kept there from all over the world. Also the Millennium Seed Bank is kept here. The other seed bank is located in Kent and it is called Brogdale. Here is a collection of British fruit. There are over 2,300 different variations of apple, 550 of pear, 350 of plum and 320 of cherry. They are used as a source for genetic material for new breeds. All over the world, the seeds are dehydrated and cooled for storage to stop them from germinating so they can be grown at a later stage. They can be grown periodically to maintain quality or they can be grown for research purposes. Every now and again, some seeds have a controlled germination to check that the seeds are still viable to use. Also, they are used to produce new seeds which are then put into storage. Zoos are very similar to seed banks. They have the same aim which is to look after the wildlife they have in conservation. The difference is zoos look after animals and seed banks look after plants. Some of the main roles zoos have are expanding the coverage of protected areas, halving the rate of loss of natural habitats and preventing the extinction of the threatened species. Also those whose habitat is severely threatened. All these lead to conservation actions such as captive breeding etc. which is where zoos come into the picture. This has happened to the Giant Pandas in Edinburgh Zoo. The zookeepers have been

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