Search Results for: genetic erosion

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Brainfood: Rice breeding, Sorghum parents, Cowpea diversity, Sweet potato double, Lesser yam uses, Tomato breeding, Peanut hybrids, Rice wild relatives, Sorghum genetic erosion

Future flooding tolerant rice germplasm: Resilience afforded beyond Sub1A gene. You want to make rapid breeding progress? You need the “Transition from Trait to Environment” approach. As far as I can tell, this means that you fix your trait of interest in a pool of elite parents before using it in proper yield breeding. Prioritizing …

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Brainfood: Ag and CC, Improved varieties, Yield growth, Food system transformation, CGIAR maize, Genetic erosion, NBSAPs, Technology & conservation, Cattle breeding

Conventional agriculture increases global warming while decreasing system sustainability. The global warming potential of conventional grain agriculture has increased x8 from 1961-2020, whereas sustainability index has decreased x3. Whatever are we to do? Adoption of improved crop varieties limited biodiversity losses, terrestrial carbon emissions, and cropland expansion in the tropics. Crop improvements from 1961–2015 resulted …

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Brainfood: Diversity patterns double, Diversification drivers, Polish genetic erosion, Tibetan naked barley diversity, Indian sorghum diversity, Do novo domestication, Eggplant tree, Banana diversity, Pearl millet diversity, Pigeon pea genome, Grasspea genome, Jersey bull diversity

Floristic classifications and bioregionalizations are not predictors of intra-specific evolutionary patterns. You can’t use spatial structures in interspecific diversity to predict spatial structure in instraspecific diversity. Gotta do the hard work, there are no shortcuts. Intraspecific trait variability in wild plant populations predicts neither variability nor performance in a common garden. You can’t use intraspecific …

Continue reading “Brainfood: Diversity patterns double, Diversification drivers, Polish genetic erosion, Tibetan naked barley diversity, Indian sorghum diversity, Do novo domestication, Eggplant tree, Banana diversity, Pearl millet diversity, Pigeon pea genome, Grasspea genome, Jersey bull diversity”

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Brainfood: Genetic erosion, Ecosystem services, Cereal mixtures, Natural enemies, Soil microbiome double

Genetic diversity loss in the Anthropocene. Don’t get excited, I don’t think the method translates to cultivated species, but fancy maths says we’ve lost on average 10% of the genetic diversity within species. A graphical causal model for resolving species identity effects and biodiversity–ecosystem function correlations. Yeah, but don’t forget that species level diversity is …

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Brainfood: Diversity & stability, Diversity & profitability, Rotations, Food environments, Food system transitions, Deforestation & ag, Great Lakes priorities, Translational research, Field size, Genetic erosion

Consistent stabilizing effects of plant diversity across spatial scales and climatic gradients. More species-diverse communities are more stable. Ok, what about agricultural systems though? Financial profitability of diversified farming systems: A global meta-analysis. Total costs, gross income and profits were higher in diversified systems, and benefit-cost ratio similar to simplified systems. No word on stability, …

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