- Presence of Zea luxurians (Durieu and Ascherson) Bird in Southern Brazil: Implications for the Conservation of Wild Relatives of Maize. Well there’s a turnup for the books.
- Fruit Phenolic Composition of Different Elderberry Species and Hybrids. Some interspecific hybrids have high phenolics levels.
- Diversity in boron toxicity tolerance of Australian barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes. There’s variation beyond the 4 known boron tolerance loci.
- Agriculture and the threat to biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Intensification is good for biodiversity, but not yet.
- Land for Food & Land for Nature? The former, according to modelling. But it depends. See above.
- Wildlife-friendly farming increases crop yield: evidence for ecological intensification. Trifecta!
- Is a Cardio-Protective Diet Sustainable? A Review of the Synergies and Tensions Between Foods That Promote the Health of the Heart and the Planet. Yes, but it will take some work.
- Genetic diversity of Malus cultivars and wild relatives in the Chinese National Repository of Apple Germplasm Resources. The varieties from the former Soviet republics and Japan are different to each other and to the canonical European/North American/Chinese material.
- Genetic and phenotypic variation of Turkish Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) accessions and their possible relationship with American, Indian and African germplasms. Turkish okra comes from all over the place.
- DNA barcoding of the main cultivated yams and selected wild species in the genus Dioscorea. 16/21 species I guess is a start.
- Plant responses to climatic extremes: within-species variation equals among-species variation. For a bunch of European grassland plants, within species variation in response to climate was as high as that among species.
- Biotic and Climatic Velocity Identify Contrasting Areas of Vulnerability to Climate Change. Tropical species can’t move fast enough.
Brainfood: Pigeonpea gaps, Indian rice diversity, Brazilian melons, Ifugao terraces, Collard greens, Climate analogues, Brachiaria diversity, Philosophy of genebanks, Wild barley & drought, Pepper valuation
- Identification of Gaps in Pigeonpea Germplasm from East and Southern Africa Conserved at the ICRISAT Genebank. Lots of collecting work to do.
- Rice Diversity – The Genetic Resource Grid of North-East India. 10,000 cultivars?
- Diversity of Melon Accessions from Northeastern Brazil and Their Relationships with Germplasms of Diverse Origins. Have come from all over.
- Disentangling Values in the Interrelations between Cultural Ecosystem Services and Landscape Conservation—A Case Study of the Ifugao Rice Terraces in the Philippines. They may be beautiful, but they need to be profitable.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Collard Landraces and their Relationship to Other Brassica oleracea Crops. Collard can be used as a source of diversity for other brassicas.
- Climate Analogues for agricultural impact projection and adaptation – a reliability test. Fail.
- Genetic Diversity and Structure of Ruzigrass Germplasm Collected in Africa and Brazil. The move from Africa to Brazil did not too adversely affect the diversity of this important forage Brachiaria.
- Saving the gene pool for the future: Seed banks as archives. “Decisions about how to salvage the past are always, necessarily, about how we value the future.”
- Response of Cultivated and Wild Barley Germplasm to Drought Stress at Different Developmental Stages. The wild is better.
- Screening Genetic Resources of Capsicum Peppers in Their Primary Center of Diversity in Bolivia and Peru. Different entrepreneurs in different countries value local peppers differently.
Brainfood: Forage diversity, Chinese cherry, Meta-diversity, Sunflower ecogeography, Lima bean domestication, Dog breeding, Goat ethnogenetics, Pigs vs chickens
- Complementary effects of species and genetic diversity on productivity and stability of sown grasslands. Species diversity good for total production, genetic diversity good for regular production throughout the year, regardless of water. And more, and more.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Patterns in Chinese Cherry (Prunus pseudocerasus Lindl) Landraces. Perhaps 2 domestication sites.
- Inter-individual variation promotes ecological success of populations and species: evidence from experimental and comparative studies. More diverse populations are less vulnerable to environmental changes, more stable in population size, less extinction prone, have better establishment success and larger ranges, especially under stress.
- Ecogeography and utility to plant breeding of the crop wild relatives of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). Many close relatives of the crop in extreme environments.
- Domestication of small-seeded lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) landraces in Mesoamerica: evidence from microsatellite markers. Two domestications events. Maybe.
- Trends in genetic diversity for all Kennel Club registered pedigree dog breeds. Popular sires have made for a lot of inbreeding, but this has been getting better of late.
- The N’Dama dilemma: ethnogenetics and small ruminant breed dynamics in the tsetse zone, The Gambia. Saving the name is not enough.
- The Pig and the Chicken in the Middle East: Modeling Human Subsistence Behavior in the Archaeological Record Using Historical and Animal Husbandry Data. Chickens replaced pigs in the first millennium Middle East because they were smaller and more efficient. Oh, and eggs.
Brainfood: Wild wheat breeding, Global pea breeding, Old Swedish peas, Prolific Chinese pigs, Genomics & CC, Veggies & food security, Agrobiodiversity use, Land use double, Agrobiodiversity use
- Genealogical analysis of the use of aegilops (Aegilops L.) genetic material in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). 1350 varieties in 50 years, involving mainly 3 wild species, the proportion of total releases using wilds steadily growing. But many pedigrees may be wrong. Not to mention the taxonomy.
- Pea. In the Grain Legumes volume of the Handbook of Plant Breeding, that is. Two cultivated species, >70,000 accessions, 28+ national and international collections, yield gains of 2% per year over past 15 years, plus good progress in lodging, disease resistance and seed visual quality and modest improvement in abiotic (heat, frost, salinity and herbicide resistance) stress resistance. Genome on the way.
- Diversity in local cultivars of Pisum sativum collected from home gardens in Sweden. Add about 70 to that number of genebank accessions.
- Genetic diversity and population structure of six Chinese indigenous pig breeds in the Taihu Lake region revealed by sequencing data. They are indeed pretty much 6 breeds. The most prolific in the world too, apparently.
- Global agricultural intensification during climate change: a role for genomics. ‘Course there is.
- The Role of Vegetables and Legumes in Assuring Food, Nutrition, and Income Security for Vulnerable Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. ‘Course there is.
- Drivers for global agricultural land use change: The nexus of diet, population, yield and bioenergy. Livestock, in a word.
- Resolving Conflicts between Agriculture and the Natural Environment. You need “policies dedicating high-quality habitat towards nature conservation, while encouraging intensive production on existing farmland with stringent limits on environmental impacts.” But see above; although they do say in the previous paper that the trend has been slowing lately.
- Using our agrobiodiversity: plant-based solutions to feed the world. “…the preservation and development of existing agrobiodiversity has not been given sufficient attention in the current scientific and political debates concerning the best strategy to keep pace with global population growth and increasing demand for food.”
Brainfood: Intensification, Diversity double, Mexican homegardens, Coffee certification, US crop diversity, Fig identification, Wild rice origins, Domestication & trophic interactions
- Population and Environmental Correlates of Maize Yields in Mesoamerica: a Test of Boserup’s Hypothesis in the Milpa. Fallows don’t really reduce much with increasing population density. Yields, on the other hand, do.
- If They Grow It, Will They Eat and Grow? Evidence from Zambia on Agricultural Diversity and Child Undernutrition. Unlike other recent studies, this one finds positive correlations among production diversity, dietary diversity and nutritional outcomes.
- Community agro biodiversity conservation continuum: an integrated approach to achieve food and nutrition security. Provides the theoretical underpinning of the finding in the previous paper: conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce.
- Home Garden Agrobiodiversity Differentiates Along a Rural—Peri–Urban Gradient in Campeche, México. Different species in urban homegardens compared to rural, but same overall diversity levels.
- Does certification improve biodiversity conservation in Brazilian coffee farms? Meh.
- Crop Species Diversity Changes in the United States: 1978–2012. It’s gone down.
- Mediterranean basin Ficus carica L.: from genetic diversity and structure to authentication of a Protected Designation of Origin cultivar using microsatellite markers. Microsatellites can recognize the protected ‘Kymis’ cultivar. Rejoice.
- Population genetic structure of Oryza rufipogon and O. nivara: implications for the origin of O. nivara. Multiple origins of nivara from rufipogon, and climatic differentiation.
- Complex tritrophic interactions in response to crop domestication: predictions from the wild. What’s good for humans is (generally) good for herbivores.