- Seawater is the next water.
- EMBRAPA’s booklets on “unconventional” vegetables.
- Money should put its money where its money is.
- Kids make genebank.
- Malta makes genebank.
- Native Americans used to smoke unusual tobacco species, and non-tobacco species too for that matter.
Measuring biodiversity next year
Just a reminder to everyone that the CBD is soliciting comments on the proposed Post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
Needless to say, Sean Hoban and colleagues have been thinking this through and are proposing genetic diversity targets and indicators, and for all species, not just crops and their wild relatives:
- the number of populations with effective population size above versus below 500
- the proportion of populations maintained within species,
- the number of species and populations in which genetic diversity is monitored using DNA-based methods.
Better than genebank accession numbers, I guess, but are they “simple” enough to measure repeatedly and consistently?
Oh, and by the way, there’s also a proposal around to have a single, headline global extinction target.
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.
Nibbles: Seed movement edition
- From Indigenous communities, to Carol and Robert Mouck, to the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Motherhouse, to the Kingston Area Seed System Initiative and Ratinenhayén:thos: seed rematriation in Canada.
- Simran Sethi gets to the bottom of the COVID seed sales surge.
- And more on the same from Dan Saladino.
- There’s been quite a surge in quinoa in the past few years. All presentations here.
- And the potato has been getting around too of course. The podcast of the book.
Nibbles: Black rice, Citrus pollen, Swiss nuts, GIAHS, Seedy IUCN
- Australia delves into black rice, thanks to IRRI genebank.
- Romans had mandarins after all.
- Switzerland protects walnut oil.
- Hanging gardens, lagoon farms and traditional bamboo agroforestry are exactly what I need at the moment.
- The IUCN Seed Conservation Specialist Group has a new website.