2 researchers succeed in non-hydroponic tissue planting

Two researchers on desertification and parched land science at the Faculty of Higher Studies in the Arabian Gulf University were able to grow four species of endangered plants into local plant habitat in the Kingdom of Bahrain using non-hydroponic tissue plantation techniques in the Sultan Qaboos Laboratories for advanced agrarian technologies. According to the program directress in the faculty of higher studies, Dr. Asma Aba Hussein, experiments were conducted in the tissue laboratories wherein three out of four endangered plants were successfully grown as per previous studies conducted in the plantation habitat of the Al-Areen Sanctuary. Dr. Aba Hussein said that desert creeping at the Al-Areen Sanctuary has been studied since 1989. The root-cause of the problem is ascribable to pressures resultant from increasingly growing fauna in the sanctuary. It was suggested to fence off some areas which had already lost their plant cover in order to protect them and give them sufficient time to regain their flora by keeping off wildlife. The management of the Al-Areen Sanctuary for Wildlife (fauna and flora) adopted and implemented these recommendations. The research was conducted by student Madawi al-Khlaifi under supervision of Dr. Asma Aba Hussein and Dr. Jamil Abbas from the University of Bahrain. Ten years after fencing off some the locations subject of the research study, researchers found out that there are remarkable metamorphoses in the plant habitat inside the fenced off area and the free-to-graze non-fenced areas. Dr. Asma Aba Hussein pointed out that the program currently seeks to protect endanger species of wild flora and to maintain boil-diversity in the GCC countries. The program also seeks to intensify experimentation on tissue planting of some economically valuable, flowering plants as well as some species of relatively valuable palm trees.