- 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.