Archaeology – Page 114 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

October 17, 2011October 16, 2011

Brainfood: Ectomycorrhiza, Synthetic peanuts, Ancient Greek amphorae, European bison, Pea breeding, Animal domestication

Ectomycorrhizas and climate change. One more damn thing to worry about.
Meiotic analysis of the hybrids between cultivated and synthetic tetraploid groundnuts. It’s normal. The meiosis I mean. Why isn’t this sort of thing done with more crops?
Aspects of Ancient Greek trade re-evaluated with amphora DNA evidence. More than just wine and olive oil.
Reconstructing range dynamics and range fragmentation of European bison for the last 8000 years. More eastern and northern than thought, and more affected by the spread of farming than climate change in the Holocene.
Resistance to downy mildew (Peronospora viciae) in Australian field pea germplasm (Pisum sativum). It comes from Afghanistan.
Deciphering the genetic basis of animal domestication. Despite all that selection and all those bottlenecks, they really are diverse.

Don’t forget the open Mendeley group for the papers we link to here.

September 8, 2011September 8, 2011

Nibbles: Ethnobotany talks, Cannabis taxonomy, Ag blogging, Breadfruit in Hawaii, Heirloom auction, Iron Age boozer, Andean potatoes, Minor crops conference, Insects as food

And if you can’t get to Kew, how about an ethnobotany talk in Denver, Colorado? Or maybe one on GPS and plants, same venue? Can’t make either? Watch a lecture on Schultes in the Amazon. He’s the Father of Ethnobotany, after all.
Misclassification of Hemp Holds Back Industrial Applications. Duuuuuuuuuude.
Write a blog on youth and agriculture, win big money. Yeah, right, I’ve heard that one before… I’m still here, Sergey.
Hawaii’s Breadfruit Festival is coming! So get in the mood.
Sotheby’s auctions heirloom. No, really. Alas, probably no breadfruits.
Now, what can I say about Scotsmen and pubs that won’t be construed as a racist slur? Probably nothing.
Old potatoes helping Andean farmers cope with climate change. And, no doubt, obesity too.
Conference on pesticide use on minor crops. Oh, to live-tweet that one.
Micro-livestock makes it into the New Yorker. Can the backlash be far behind?

September 5, 2011January 22, 2014

Brainfood: Community forestry, Chinese Paleolithic, Peanut wild relatives, Pepper taxonomy, Fruit tree domestication, Allelopathy, Olive evaluation

Back to basics: Considerations in evaluating the outcomes of community forestry. You don’t need fancy indicators.
Plant exploitation of the last foragers at Shizitan in the Middle Yellow River Valley China: Evidence from grinding stones. Remains of starch and patterns of wear on grinding stones show that Paleolithic people in China used a lot of plants, in a lot of ways.
Phenotypic diversity and identification of wild Arachis accessions with useful agronomic and nutritional traits. Our friends at ICRISAT identify the top 20 wild peanut accessions.
Taxonomy and genetic diversity of domesticated Capsicum species in the Andean region. AFLPs and SSRs clarify some taxonomic issues, but show high diversity not just in Bolivia, the putative centre of origin. No top 20 though.
From forest to field: Perennial fruit crop domestication. They’re like annuals in some respects, different in others. Perhaps most interestingly, their domestication bottleneck wasn’t so much of one.
Allelopathic potential of Triticum spp., Secale spp. and Triticosecale spp. and use of chromosome substitutions and translocations to improve weed suppression ability in winter wheat. Low in wheat, but high in some rye accessions, and transferrable.
Genotyping and evaluation of local olive varieties of a climatically disfavoured region through molecular, morphological and oil quality parameters. Eight minor varieties could be less so.

September 2, 2011November 28, 2017

Nibbles: Refugia, Mann, Tree pix, Sparing v sharing, Lethal yellowing, Value chains, Coral sun-blocking, GlobalHort, Gravenstein, Pirate agrobiodiversity

How species survive climate change.
Charles C. Mann, author of great books on pre-Columbian America and the consequences of the Columbian Exchange, interviewed.
Dreamy pictures of old British trees.
“Protecting wild species may require growing more food on less land.” Great press release headlines of our times. Fortunately Mongabay has a discussion.
Coconut lethal yellowing wreaking havoc in Mozambique.
What makes a good food value chain?
Boffins want to re-activate coral genes in temperate plants to stop them getting sunstroke. Or something.
Old friend engaged by GlobalHort to work on position paper on “Promoting Agrobiodiversity for International Development: A Rationale and Roadmap for Collective Action”. Go, Hannah.
Grapes vs apples in Sonoma County.
Aaargh, pirates smoked like chimneys and drank like fish. Well I never. Anyway, nice to see them making full use of the local agrobiodiversity products.

August 24, 2011March 23, 2012

Nibbles: European diversity, Cassava bugs, Livestock funding, Malnutrition

Genetic diversity in European men and one of the organisms they exploit. And another.
CIAT cassava entomologist rings warning bell.
ILRI boffins point out why they don’t have enough money. Yeah, but what’s to be done about it?
Malnutrition in Kenya and Guatemala. Are school gardens an/the answer? FAO thinks so.

1. Three Sisters rematriated to historical Cherokee Nation.
2. Native grains returning to Indigenous land in Australia too.
3. May need to bring back agricultural practices too, like in Peru.
4. Meanwhile, in India, farmers are trying to grow apples in new places. Go figure.
5. Anyway, seems like the IFOAM Seeds Platform might be able to help.
6. And genebanks too of course, like the Millennium Seed Bank.
7. As part of a comprehensive conservation systems, goes without saying, like in China.
8. Which also include climate-proof protected areas.
9. It worked for soybeans, after all.
10. Well, for now anyway…
Published on June 17, 2025