Forests & trees

July 7, 2020July 3, 2020

Coffee lost and found

Remember the paper on re-finding a couple of “lost” coffee species in Sierra Leone that we included in Brainfood a few weeks back? Thought you might. Anyway, Jeremy has an interview with the main author, NRI’s Jeremy Haggar, in Eat This Podcast this week. Have a listen, it’s a cool story.

But how will it feed into the global coffee conservation strategy?

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020

Brainfood: Biodiversity targets, Image software, Potato efficiency, Cassava cyanide, Popcorn, Payment for agrobiodiversity, Walnut conservation, Grapevine leaves, Pigeonpea haplotypes, Chakras, Diet & diversity, Seed activism, Seed longevity

Genetic diversity targets and indicators in the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework must be improved. Better than accession numbers? Well, yeah, but will it matter?
FIELDimageR: An R package to analyze orthomosaic images from agricultural field trials. Extract plot-level results from your drone shots, automagically.
Radiation Interception, Conversion and Partitioning Efficiency in Potato Landraces: How Far Are We from the Optimum? Quite far, but perhaps more interestingly you can predict tuber yield from time-series aerial imagery. Which means the above could come in useful.
Genetic architecture and gene mapping of cyanide in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz.). High cyanide alleles in 2 major genes mainly found along Amazonian rivers and in coastal areas of Brazil. Drones unavailable for comment.
Relationships among American popcorn and their links with landraces conserved in a microcenter of diversity. Did the diverse popcorns of southern Brazil derive from local diversification or independent local domestication? More work needed. Anyone going to mash this up with the cassava result above?
Payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services: An overview of Latin American experiences, lessons learned and upscaling challenges. 5 ha of each of 100 varieties will cost you US$70,000 p.a. at a 5% discount rate. Bargain.
Diversity Under Threat: Connecting Genetic Diversity and Threat Mapping to Set Conservation Priorities for Juglans regia L. Populations in Central Asia. Ex situ where threat level from climate change is severe, in situ where threat level due to climate change is minor, assisted natural regeneration where threat level from climate change is minor but severe from other things, like overgrazing. No word on payments for ecosystem services rendered.
Composite modeling of leaf shape across shoots discriminates Vitis species better than individual leaves. Fancy maths used to composite leaf shapes along a shoot as a way of telling species apart.
Superior haplotypes for haplotype‐based breeding for drought tolerance in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.). From 10 genes and about 300 genotypes to 17 accessions with 4 superior haplotypes.
Create Space for Indigenous Leadership to Preserve Agricultural Biodiversity. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, cacao production for cash is not driving down agrobiodiversity.
Conceptual Links between Landscape Diversity and Diet Diversity: A Roadmap for Transdisciplinary Research. There are 4 different pathways whereby diverse forested landscapes can lead to diet diversity.
‘Keeping seeds in our hands’: the rise of seed activism. While the formal sector is still arguing about farmers’ rights, activists have moved the paradigm to seed sovereignty.
Thirty-year monitoring and statistical analysis of 50 species’ germinability in genebank medium-term storage suggest specific characteristics in seed longevity. Huge dataset reveals some geographic variation in seed longevity within crops, among other things.

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020

Nibbles: Olive plague, ITPGRFA, Potato, Sweetpotato, Guinea pig, Amazon farming, Unilever, Apomixis, Pathogens, Reindeer,

The Xylella butcher’s bill mounts up.
Webinar on the Plant Treaty.
The history of the humble: potato, sweetpotato, guinea pig.
Agroforestry in the forest.
Unilever does C labelling. Biodiversity next?
Hacking apomixis in sorghum and cowpea so farmers can save seeds of hybrids.
Temperature range and plant host range of fungus and oomycete pathogens change rapidly and are not correlated.
In from the cold: Rudolph’s genome.
Rethinking public gardens in a series of 5-minute presentations.

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020

Brainfood: Agroforestry double, Cassava drones, Neolithic elites, PAs and CC, Livestock networks, Banana preferences, Prehistoric Cyprus, Terra Petra, Food system, Argentinian tomatoes, Canary sheep, Scicomm

Land‐use history determines ecosystem services and conservation value in tropical agroforestry. Not all agroforests are created equal.
Temperate agroforestry systems provide greater pollination service than monoculture. No word on land-use history though.
Machine learning for high-throughput field phenotyping and image processing provides insight into the association of above and below-ground traits in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Fancy maths helps you estimate root yield from drone images of the canopy of cassava plots.
A dynastic elite in monumental Neolithic society. Ancient DNA suggests Atlantic megaliths were built to honour incestuous god-kings. But n=1, so there’s that.
Keeping pace with climate change in global terrestrial protected areas. The representation of climates in protected areas is going to change, with cold and warm climates suffering.
Network analysis of regional livestock trade in West Africa. It all starts in Burkina Faso.
Gender and Trait Preferences for Banana Cultivation and Use in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review. Farmers still prefer traditional cultivars.
Decoding diversity in the food system: wheat and bread in North America. “Although the dominant trends are toward uniformity, there are also numerous forms of resistance.” Banana farmers available for comment.
Against the Grain: Long-Term Patterns in Agricultural Production in Prehistoric Cyprus. There was resistance during the agricultural transition too.
Legacy of Amazonian Dark Earth soils on forest structure and species composition. Forest that was actively managed and farmed in pre-Columbian times is more diverse.
Evidence of genetic diversity within Solanum Lycopersicum L. ‘Platense’ landrace and identification of various subpopulations. The accessions thus labelled in an Argentinian genebank show a lot of variation.
Genetic diversity evolution of a sheep breed reintroduced after extinction: Tracing back Christopher Columbus’ first imported sheep. Decolonization in action.
Simple rules for concise scientific writing. Easier said than done, as all the above confirm.

June 22, 2020June 22, 2020

Brainfood: Cover crops, Forest management, Mixtures, Diverse landscapes, Ethiopia and CC, Mapping settlements, Fonio, Peach, Aging seeds, African diversity, Svalbard, Vegetables

The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops. You’d need to devote 4% of the arable maize area of the US to cover crop seed production to have enough cover crop seed for the maize cultivated area. That’s a lot. The answer: better cover crop genetics and agronomy.
The first rapid forest inventory and resource use assessment of Dashtijum Nature Reserve, Tajikistan: a mixed methods approach. Fancy maths says you need to restrict grazing in these fancy walnut-fruit forests to prevent further degradation.
Towards intercrop ideotypes: non-random trait assembly can promote overyielding and stability of species proportion in simulated legume-based mixtures. In silico modelling shows that not all mixtures outyield pure stands, but it’s hard to predict which will.
Fixing our global agricultural system to prevent the next COVID-19. Beyond the land sparing vs sharing dichotomy, to multifunctional landscapes, supported by policies and markets.
The role of climate in the trend and variability of Ethiopia’s cereal crop yields. Higher temperatures during 1979–2014 correlated with lower yields in much of the high potential area. So, trouble ahead.
Precise mapping, spatial structure and classification of all the human settlements on Earth. Because they’re there, that’s why.
Genetic Resources and Varietal Environment of Grown Fonio Millets in West Africa: Challenges and Perspectives. Lots of work to be done by enterprising breeders.
Genetic Resources, Breeding Programs in China, and Gene Mining of Peach: A Review. Lots of work has been done by enterprising breeders.
Patterns of mitochondrial DNA fragmentation in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds under ex situ genebank storage and artificial aging. Possible biomarker for seed viability, but differences between natural and artificial aging.
Ancient genomes reveal complex patterns of population movement, interaction, and replacement in sub-Saharan Africa. Present day hunter-gatherers represent a contraction of a previously widespread human population, which interacted in complex ways with subsequent waves of pastoralists and farmers.
The past shall not begin: Frozen seeds, extended presents and the politics of reversibility. So Svalbard apparently represents the politics of reversibility made concrete. Literally.
The Role of Vegetable Genetic Resources in Nutrition Security and Vegetable Breeding. How about reversing the slide of traditional vegetables, eh? Those enterprising breeders needed again.