Forests & trees

June 18, 2020June 19, 2020

Chimps shit in the woods

Our friend Alex Chepstow-Lusty and co-authors have another paper out on the forests of Central Africa in the late Holocene. The import of this latest piece of work is that when the forests bounced back 2000 years ago from the fragmentation caused by climate change 500 years before, they did so at least partly thanks to forest animals. As ever with Alex, poo is involved, on this occasion chimp poo. We can thank it for the spread of oil palm across West Africa, it seems. Chimps and others seed poopers may, alas, not be so helpful for the forest’s recovery from the current, anthropogenically caused climate change.

Credit: Simon Crowhurst & Alex Chepstow-Lusty.

June 11, 2020

Nibbles: NordGen, Wollemi backyards, Coral genebank, Food security, Cherokee chefs, Community seed bank

Nordics upgrade genebank database.
Crowdsourcing Wollemi pine conservation.
Corals need a genebank too. And a database and crowdsourcing as well, no doubt.
Though I’m not sure they’ll be able to make the food security argument.
Or bring chefs on board.
What would a community genebank look like for coral, I wonder. And are they hiring?

June 1, 2020June 17, 2020

Brainfood: CC & breeding, Maize data, Images, Seed activism, Fishy rice, BRI, Cherry genome, Llama diversity, Swiss chestnuts, Integrated livestock, Aichi targets, Forests, Rejolladas, Bitter gourd genome

Designing crops for adaptation to the drought and high‐temperature risks anticipated in future climates. High-temperature tolerance of seed-setting and transpiration efficiency are going to be needed.
2019 release of SNP allele frequency data for maize accessions in the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank maize collection. Maybe this will help?
ImageBreed: Open‐access plant breeding web–database for image‐based phenotyping. I’m sure this will help.
In or out? Organisational dynamics within European ‘peasant seed’ movements facing opening-up institutions and policies. In, I hope.
Rice field fisheries: Wild aquatic species diversity, food provision services and contribution to inland fisheries. Careful with intensification.
A draft genome of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) reveals genome‐wide and local effects of domestication. Interesting parallels with peach.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Llamas (Lama glama) from the Camelid Germplasm Bank—Quimsachata. The populations of 2 breeds in the bank are diverse but not very different.
Reservoir of the European chestnut diversity in Switzerland. There’s a uniquely Swiss genetic group.
Commercial integrated crop-livestock systems achieve comparable crop yields to specialized production systems: A meta-analysis. Aim for soils of intermediate texture for the win-win though.
Best-practice biodiversity safeguards for Belt and Road Initiative’s financiers. Needs work.
Assessment of national-level progress towards elements of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Not great. See above.
Meeting the food security challenge for nine billion people in 2050: What impact on forests? Impact need not be as great as it could be. See above.
Influential landscapes: Temporal trends in the agricultural use of rejolladas at Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico. Solution sinkholes have been used for horticulture for hundreds of years.
Long-read bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) genome and the genomic architecture of nonclassic domestication. Almost as much phenotypic differences between two regional genotypic groups among cultivated forms than between the wild and cultivated. More here.

May 29, 2020June 8, 2020

Nibbles: Lettuce breeding, SPC genebank, European genebanks, Messaging, New sorghum, Ancient DNA, Pastoralism review

A million bucks to save lettuce.
Genebank provides seeds shock.
The genebank of the future will provide data.
How to talk about genebanks (among other things).
A sorghum variety to keep an eye on.
The past, present and future of Cinchona.
Ancient genomics of people and dogs: compare and contrast.
Looking (up) to pastoralists for answers.

May 25, 2020May 29, 2020

Brainfood: Food Systems Dashboard, Woody perennials, Translocation, Seed storage, Forest management, Urban trees, Ancient beer, Beef cattle selection, Potato breeding, Seed physiology, Peanut origins, Wild coffees, Soil bugs

The Food Systems Dashboard is a new tool to inform better food policy. 140 indicators from over 30 sources. Launching soon. Always good to have the data.
Using Living Germplasm Collections to Characterize, Improve, and Conserve Woody Perennials. Nice review of the conservation of your favourite fruits in field genebanks (about 6% of the total number of crop accessions).
Moving threatened plants: Story and practice. It sounds easy but it isn’t.
Seed Germination after 30 Years Storage in Permafrost. Drying, drying, drying.
Why Seed Physiology Is Important for Genebanking. Well, don’t you want to know why a seed lot is showing no or low germination after 30 years in permafrost? Or, alternatively, how long another one will continue to show good germination? Thought so.
Habitat management alternatives for conservation forests in the temperate zone: Review, synthesis, and implications. 4 intervention alternatives: minimal, traditional, non-traditional and species-based. But we need long-term studies to really know what works best. Presumably longer than 30 years. This is an old paper, but it came up again because of this very thorough Twitter thread.
High richness of exotic trees in tropical urban green spaces: Reproductive systems, fruiting and associated risks to native species. Go native. At least in Brazil. Someone should mash up with all the papers above.
Mashes to Mashes, Crust to Crust. Presenting a novel microstructural marker for malting in the archaeological record. Look for cell wall breakdown in the grain’s aleurone layer.
Powerful detection of polygenic selection and environmental adaptation in US beef cattle. Local adaptation is being eroded.
Genomic-Led Potato Breeding for Increasing Genetic Gains: Achievements and Outlook. The future is true seed-propagated F1 diploid hybrids produced by crossing inbred diploid lines. Oh, plus gene editing here and there.
Reply to: Evaluating two different models of peanut’s origin. Did the polyploidization event which gave rise to Arachis hypogaea occur ~450,000 years ago or <10,000 years ago? The authors who said the former double down.
Lost and Found: Coffea stenophylla and C. affinis, the Forgotten Coffee Crop Species of West Africa. Let the interbreeding commence.
The proportion of soil-borne pathogens increases with warming at the global scale. Be afraid.