Forests & trees

Nibbles: CC & death, GBIF enhancements, Killer fungi, Lion trees, Old oaks, Gourmet ganja, Wild horses, Resistant cassava, Contested agronomy, p-values

Climate change is going to hit us where we live. Or die.
How to make GBIF more relevant for agrobiodiversity: a 10-point plan.
Killer fungi on the loose? ‘Twas ever thus. But genomics will save us?
Planting trees is good for lions too.
There are still medieval oaks in England.
“…where sommelier-like ‘budtenders’ sell gourmet ganja in a designer showroom.”
Rewilding the wild horse.
More about the cassava variety Kasetsart 50, poster child for CGIAR impact.
It’s not just genetic resources that are contested. Yep, agronomy too.
“Scientific conclusions and business or policy decisions should not be based only on whether a p-value passes a specific threshold.”

The next step in the evolution of participatory plant breeding is evolutionary plant breeding.
1458 livestock breeds are in trouble.
A blast from corn’s past. In more ways than one, as this article from High Country News is kinda old.
The Chinese market in African wildlife is bad for both.
Let them eat plastic.
Maclura pomifera is apparently all the rage in Iowa.
There’s more to Italian wine than chianti.
“You can’t really get fucked up on kava.” I beg to differ.
Two independent pieces on the continuing evolution of humans to cope with their diet: starch, milk and meat.

Mike Jackson wants to know how many crop varieties you can name. Please tell him. My number is 42.
This is what CRISPR looks like. In an infographic, that is.
Japan’s rice terraces were better for biodiversity when they were, you know, full of rice.
A Wendell Berry biopic?
Yep, more on eating insects. It’s definitely a thing now.

Peak hops? Say it ain’t so.
Day-long plant-breeding-for-the-masses course at Oxford in April.
Botanists of the twenty-first century: Roles, challenges and opportunities. An e-book for the ages.
Genes to beans: polyploidy on a plate. A Royal Society lecture by Kathy Willis.
Some naughty people have been collecting plants in India without permits.
IPBES tells it like it is on pollinators. In a press release. You try to find the actual report online. Oh and here’s FAO getting in on the act. Though at least for this the report is easy to find.
Great interactive map of the work of the Rainforest Alliance. Check out the agriculture tab.
Italian researchers build a time machine. A phytotron, really, but let them have their little fun.
Speaking of fun, GCARD3 Youth Agripreneurs Projects on “Climate Resilient Indian Cattle” and “fake seeds.” Lots more too, all interesting.

BBC Food Programme on crop diversity in India, with a little help from Bioversity’s Stefano Padulosi (whose name manages to be pronounced in three different ways in 20 minutes.
How to measure photosynthesis on a grand scale.
The origins of our diet. It’s the interactions, stupid.
Barley as superfood. No, not the fermented kind.
More diverse freshwaters give higher fish yields.
European earthworm diversity mapped. No word on relationship with yields. Surprisingly difficult to see any correlation with agricultural intensification.
It’s been a bad time for livestock (and therefore people) in Mongolia and in Ethiopia.
Domesticating the wild mango that is not a mango but is almost as tasty.
The weird world of the pure caffeine trade.