- The truth about tilapia. Well, according to Fox News, anyway.
- “..the greatest industry that ever had or could by possibility have ever existed in any age or country.” Go on, guess. No, not tilapia aquaculture, though it has time.
- Modern Farmer gives us its hipster take on the potato. And bows out?
- Mars unleashes its sustainability policies.
- The Forest Stewardship Council gives examples of community-based conservation success stories.
- Homegardens for nutrition. (No, no pre-cooked bean products here).
- Ok, put the two previous together and you get this: Sumatran village forests.
- Bet those villagers don’t need a gardening manual, unlike Henry VIII of England.
- The American chestnut continues its comeback. Manual probably available.
- After barcoding: metabarcoding.
- Symposium on non-cow milk. Sounds like fun.
- “With more diversity, the more tools we have to fight against problems like climate change.” Yes, even with wine grapes.
- Biodiversity goods and bads: the role of biodiversity in poverty alleviation.
Nibbles: CGRFA, Kew crop job, CC and PGRFA, MAGIC, SDGs, Bushmeat, Biofortification, Protecting trees, Wild coffee, Money honey, Nutmeg story, Colonial cooking, Armenian food
- The Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research breaks down this week’s Fifteenth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture for ya.
- Kew looking for a crop person! I wonder if the successful candidate is in Rome today.
- Mauricio Bellon on why smallholder farmers need crop diversity to adapt to climate change. He’s in Rome.
- Multi-Parent Advanced Generation Inter Cross (MAGIC) deconstructed. Compare and contrast with above.
- The SDGs in one cool interactive infographic. But where’s nutrition?
- Where is overhunting for bushmeat occurring? Gotta get your nutrition where you can…
- Want to invest in a biofortified crop like iron beans? Here’s how to work out where you should do it. Interesting to cross-reference with that bushmeat thing above?
- Ancient Greek tree preservation order.
- Ethiopian forest dwellers protect wild coffee. No preservation orders needed.
- Tracking honey. Follow the money.
- Could say the same about nutmeg.
- Meat stew with garden eggs. Sounds yummie. Not much used in Kenya these days any more, alas.
- Delving into Armenian Ottoman foods. Because we can. No sign of garden eggs.
Brainfood: Safflower diversity, Afghan wheat diversity, Cassava diversity, SP drought tolerance, Olive diversity, Community genebanks, Organic yield meta-analysis, On farm success, Standardizing phenotyping, Wild collecting
- Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in a Global Reference Collection of 531 Accessions of Carthamus tinctorius L. (Safflower) Using AFLP Markers. Bayesian analysis of genetic diversity of global (43 countries) collection held in India reveals 19 geographic groups, with most diversity in the Near East and Iran–Afghanistan regions.
- Molecular evaluation of orphan Afghan common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) landraces collected by Dr. Kihara using single nucleotide polymorphic markers. Analysis (Bayesian, natch) of genetic diversity of over 400 wheat landraces collected 1950-1970 and conserved at the Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Japan reveals agroecological patterning and hotspot in Badakhshan province.
- Sources of pest resistance in cassava. Analysis of 89 trials over 25 years involving the CIAT cassava collection identifies 129 landraces with high resistance to thrips, 33 to green mites and 19 to whiteflies.
- Screening sweetpotato genotypes for tolerance to drought stress. Days to permanent wilting point (DPWP) points to 8 promising clones in Kenya.
- Olive domestication and diversification in the Mediterranean Basin. About 400 wild and cultivated accessions divide up into W, central and E groups and show evidence of admixture among them and local domestication events.
- The Multiple Functions and Services of Community Seedbanks. More than just conservation.
- Diversification practices reduce organic to conventional yield gap. More data and fancier maths finds a lower organic yield gap (20%), which is halved by multi-cropping and crop rotations.
- Conserving landraces and improving livelihoods: how to assess the success of on farm conservation projects? All you need is two graphs.
- Finding Our Way through Phenotypes. “We urge all biologists, data managers, and clinicians to actively support the development, evaluation, refinement, and adoption of methodologies, tools, syntaxes, and standards for capturing and computing over phenotypic data and to collaborate in bringing about a coordinated approach.” Amen.
- Wild food in Europe: A synthesis of knowledge and data of terrestrial wild food as an ecosystem service. 65 million people collect, and at least 100 million consume, wild food. But only 81 plants? Thought it would be more. But even so, quite an ecosystem service.
Global Forest Genetic Resources: Taking Stock
December saw the publication of a special, open access issue of Forest Ecology and Management on “Global Forest Genetic Resources: Taking Stock.” Ian Dawson, one of the editors, has blogged chez nous about a couple of the papers. Here is the full table of contents, with links to both the papers and Ian’s posts.
Loo J, Souvannavong O, Dawson IK (2014) Seeing the trees as well as the forest: the importance of managing forest genetic resources. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 1-8.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.08.014
Dawson IK, Leakey R, Clement CR, Weber JC, Cornelius JP, Roshetko JM, Vinceti B, Kalinganire A, Tchoundjeu Z, Masters E, Jamnadass R (2014) The management of tree genetic resources and the livelihoods of rural communities in the tropics: non-timber forest products, smallholder agroforestry practices and tree commodity crops. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 9-21.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.01.021
Koskela J, Vinceti B, Dvorak W, Bush D, Dawson IK, Loo J, Kjaer ED, Navarro C, Padolina C, Bordács S, Jamnadass R, Graudal L, Ramamonjisoa L (2014) Utilization and transfer of forest genetic resources: a global review. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 22-34.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.07.017
Graudal L, Aravanopoulos F, Bennadji Z, Changtragoon S, Fady B, Kjær ED, Loo J, Ramamonjisoa L, Vendramin GG (2014) Global to local genetic diversity indicators of evolutionary potential in tree species within and outside forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 35-51.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.05.002
Wickneswari R, Rajora OP, Finkeldey R, Aravanopoulos F, Bouvet J-M, Vaillancourt RE, Kanashiro M, Fady B, Tomita M, Vinson C (2014) Genetic effects of forest management practices: global synthesis and perspectives. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 52-65.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.06.008
Thomas E, Jalonen R, Loo J, Boshier D, Gallo L, Cavers S, Bordács S, Smith P, Bozzano M (2014) Genetic considerations in ecosystem restoration using native tree species. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 66-75.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.07.015
Alfaro RI, Fady B, Vendramin GG, Dawson IK, Fleming RA, Sáenz-Romero C, Lindig-Cisneros RA, Murdock T, Vinceti B, Navarro CM, Skrøppa T, Baldinelli G, El-Kassaby YA, Loo J (2014) The role of forest genetic resources in responding to biotic and abiotic factors in the context of anthropogenic climate change. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 76-87.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.04.006
Pritchard HW, Moat JF, Ferraz JBS, Marks TR, Camargo JLC, Nadarajan J, Ferraz IDK (2014) Innovative approaches to the preservation of forest trees. Forest Ecology and Management, 333, 88-98.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.08.012
I wonder how many of the recently-published top 20 research questions on forestry and landscapes we can now tick off.
Nibbles: Sake worries, Idaho apples, Local cuisine, SP leaves, Baobab superfood, CWR training, Physic gardens, Forest questions
- As if Japan doesn’t have enough to worry about, its sake is in trouble.
- Update on that Idaho Heritage Tree Project.
- Why local cuisine is best. Who needs fusion, eh?
- Sweet potato leaves are good, and good for you. But you can’t eat them if they’re not part of your local cuisine.
- Same goes for baobab.
- New Samara has report on crop wild relatives training in Uganda.
- A medicinal plant garden in Philadelphia.
- How can we improve agriculture to reduce the pressure in forested areas? One of the top 20 questions for forestry and landscapes, apparently.