Daily news
14 July 2017
150-year-old zombie plants revived after excavating ghost ponds
By Karl Gruber
Scientists are rising the dead. Well, almost. Plants discovered in “ghost ponds” are being revived after lurking underground as dormant seeds for up to 150 years.
These so-called ghost ponds are formed when agricultural land expansion means that existing ponds are filled in, and literally buried alive, says Emily Alderton, at University College London (UCL), who led the study.
To expand a field, farmers commonly remove hedgerows then use the uprooted plants and soil to fill up any ponds. This happened at the site Alderton’s team studied in Norfolk, UK.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140742-150-year-old-zombie-plants-revived-after-excavating-ghost-ponds/
