Climate change

August 28, 2015August 28, 2015

The size of the task

#sabiennial a glimpse and summary of aspects of the state of plant #biodiversity pic.twitter.com/fwDnquaPoN

— Donat Agosti (@myrmoteras) August 28, 2015

Not much better for crop wild relatives, I suspect. And this doesn’t even mention genetic diversity. And the clock is ticking.

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015

Nibbles: Plant names, Tomato trifecta, Amaranth, Corn wars, Wild lettuce, Dying, Indian ag, Chocographic, Root symbionts, Rehabilitation, Mesquite, Extreme weather, Saviour plants, Pawpaw, Japanese rice, Coffee museum, Caribbean early ag, Amazonian livelihoods, Vislak on corn

In praise of common names. Meh. You won’t see a Latin name in this whole Nibbles. See how you like it.
Building a tomato. In Spanish.
Tracking a tomato.
The dark side of tomatoes.
Amaranth to rescue Mexicans from obesity.
Seeds of contention.
Finding the lost Least Lettuce.
Indigo goes back to the future.
What if the monsoon fails? MS Swaminathan has some answers.
Nice chocolate infographic from FAO.
A diverse microbial community in and around roots helps plants thrive. The Science article is behind a paywall, but there’s a helpful infographic on Twitter.
The US has a National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration. Vision? The right seed in the right place at the right time. Wish I’d thought of that.
When otherwise useful trees attack. Ah, the irony of this coming right after the previous one.
UK’s Global Food Security programme says extreme weather events are increasing and we must adapt agriculture. Good to know.
And today’s Five Plants That Will Save the World are…
Maybe add pawpaw to that?
Japanese rice farmers: change gonna come.
Nice coffee museum in Brazil.
Early agriculture in the Caribbean: Cuba and Trinidad.
The babaçu breakers of Maranhão are under threat. What’s babaçu? Yeah, well, look it up.
“Seed banking began about 30 years ago as an improvement to individual farmers storing and using their own seeds.” Riiiiight.
That Vilsak is a card.

August 17, 2015August 11, 2015

Brainfood: Brassica rethink, Camel colours, Parsing the ITPGRFA, Static buffalo, Traits not taxa, Expert tyranny, Chinese pollinators, Heritage landscapes, Mining text, Diversity & nutrition

Domestication of Brassica oleracea L. It happened in the balmy Mediterranean, not along those blustery Atlantic cliffs.
Validating local knowledge on camels: Colour phenotypes and genetic variation of dromedaries in the Nigeria-Niger corridor. The locally recognized colour-based breeds are not supported by the genetics.
The Battle over Plant Genetic Resources: Interpreting the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources. The Treaty phrase “genetic parts and components, in the form received” can be interpreted in ways that do not clash with TRIPS. The author also suggests that the Benefit Sharing Fund should be used to pay lawyers, but I’m not sure if that’s tongue-in-cheek.
The response of the distributions of Asian buffalo breeds in China to climate change over the past 50 years. Fancy maths says it’s minimal.
Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services. It’s not the taxa. Or it shouldn’t be.
Expert opinion on extinction risk and climate change adaptation for biodiversity. In situ most preferable, ex situ most feasible.
Conserving pollinator diversity and improving pollination services in agricultural landscapes.The view from China is much like the view from everywhere else.
Heritage Values and Agricultural Landscapes: Towards a New Synthesis. Back to the future: heritage can mean resilience.
Using legacy botanical literature as a source of phytogeographical data. Text parsed to yield maps. Brave new world.
Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households. Want better nutrition? Access to markets better than promoting production diversity.

August 12, 2015

Nibbles: Kinky crops, Hot pepper, Cary Fowler, Gin history, Open data, Quaker food, QPM in Ethiopia, Botany app, Old seeds, New tomato

Why aren’t there more crops among the orchids?
This pepper is not so much a crop as a weapon of mass destruction.
Now here’s a crop. New tomato has taste, storability, looks. But I think it’s dating.
Maize with cool amino acids reaches Ethiopia. Must have walked there.
Really old squash seeds.
Cary Fowler on the Weather Channel. You heard me.
Quakers have an opinion on the right to food and climate change. Well, why shouldn’t they? They also have a UN office, but that’s another story. No word on whether they made the Weather Channel.
Ok, so apparently the answer is data. Says a data company. And open data at that. Quakers nonplussed.
Botanizing in N or S America? There’s an app for that.
The rise and rise of gin. And I certainly need one.

August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Brainfood: Vavilov then & now & always, Helmeted fowl diversity, MLND resistance, Sorghum diversity, Facilitation, Rice yields, Biodiversity services, Wild tomato diversity, Date diversity

In the Footsteps of Vavilov: Plant Diversity Then and Now. The Pamiri Highlands of Tajikistan, the Ethiopian Highlands, and the Colorado Plateau of Southwestern North America compared at time of Vavilov and now: “Localities that have retained diversity have suffered the least.”
Vavilovian Centers of Plant Diversity: Implications and Impacts. “His concept of specific centers of origin for crop plants was not an isolated aphorism but has directed breeders, on their study and reflection, to the continued improvement and economic development of plants for humanity.”
Mitochondrial DNA variation of Nigerian domestic helmeted guinea fowl. Recent domestication, and lots of intermixing mean not much diversity, and what there is doesn’t have structure.
Genome-wide association and genomic prediction of resistance to maize lethal necrosis disease in tropical maize germplasm. That’s when two viruses attack synergistically. Resistance is from multiple loci with smallish effects, and there are some promising markers.
Genome-environment associations in sorghum landraces predict adaptive traits. Genotype predicts drought tolerance.
Facilitation and sustainable agriculture: a mechanistic approach to reconciling crop production and conservation. Understanding facilitative plant–plant interactions (intercropping, varietal mixtures) in crops leads to more sustainable farming practices. Or it could.
The relative contribution of climate and cultivar renewal to shaping rice yields in China since 1981. Mainly new varieties. Climate change has actually helped, but for how long?
Biodiversity inhibits parasites: Broad evidence for the dilution effect. Meta-analysis shows biodiversity decreases parasitism and herbivory.
Using genomic repeats for phylogenomics: a case study in wild tomatoes (Solanum section Lycopersicon: Solanaceae). Data that are usually thrown away turn out to be useful for something after all.
Genetic structure of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) in the Old World reveals a strong differentiation between eastern and western populations. Asian and African genepools, with geneflow E to W.