- Unlocking the secrets of extreme seed longevity: the relevance of historic botanical collections to modern research. Claims that very old seeds are still alive are probably exaggerated. Except from genebanks, of course.
- Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use. We had transformed the world globally by 3000 years ago.
- Genome-wide association studies in apple reveal loci of large effect controlling apple polyphenols. It should be surprisingly easy to breed really healthy apples. No word on adaptation.
- Identifying loci with breeding potential across temperate and tropical adaptation via EigenGWAS and EnvGWAS. 13 genomic regions under ecological selection in maize. No word on nutrition.
- The maize frontier in rural South India: Exploring the everyday dynamics of the contemporary food regime. Adoption is being driven both top-down and bottom-up.
- Simple study designs in ecology produce inaccurate estimates of biodiversity responses. Complexity in experimental design is worth it.
- Early integration of pastoralism and millet cultivation in Bronze Age Eurasia. In southeastern Kazakhstan, ca 2700 BC, mobile pastoralists winter foddered their sheep and goat with the region’s earliest cultivated millet, which came from China.
- The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia. People and crops moved together, both east and west. Oh, and are the above the Yanmaya?
- Lost Grains and Forgotten Vegetables from Japan: the Seikei Zusetsu Agricultural Catalog (1793–1804). Fewer than half of the 109 species illustrated are still grown in Japan.
- Soil legacy data rescue via GlobalSoilMap and other international and national initiatives. Should do the same with genebank data too.
- Insights into deployment of DNA markers in plant variety protection and registration. Will increasingly be used in support of DUS, apparently.
- Genetic Contribution of Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat to CIMMYT’s Spring Bread Wheat Breeding Germplasm. 20% of the lines in international yield trials were synthetic-derived with an average genetic contribution from the D genome wild relative of 15.6%.
- Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of synthetic and bread wheat accessions in Western Siberia. The Japanese synthetics are something else.
Brainfood: Nutrient availability, Afghani wheat, Poverty reduction, Tanzania ag development, Fish refuges, Gender, Cerrado conversion, Rice origins, Global erosion, Food perceptions, Ag & health, Mongolian Allium, Bean disease, Tropical legumes
- Combining the effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on protein, iron, and zinc availability and projected climate change on global diets: a modelling study. Global net availability to decrease by 15-20% by 2050, mostly where it’s already low.
- Tracking the adoption of bread wheat varieties in Afghanistan using DNA fingerprinting. 75% of samples were varieties released after 2000, landraces are being replaced, and farmers name varieties correctly about 50% of the times.
- Pathways from research on improved staple crop germplasm to poverty reduction for smallholder farmers. Land, land, land.
- “Modern” farming and the transformation of livelihoods in rural Tanzania. Small is still beautiful.
- Analyzing drivers of fish biomass and biodiversity within community fish refuges in Cambodia. Governance, governance, governance.
- The Role of Women in Production and Management of RTB Crops in Rwanda and Burundi: Do Men Decide, and Women Work? Guess. I bet you’re wrong.
- Soy expansion in Brazil’s Cerrado. Forget the Amazon.
- Genomic history and ecology of the geographic spread of rice. Yangtze Valley –> global cooling –> temperate + tropical japonica –> SE Asia –> diversification. Indica is more complicated.
- Estimated six per cent loss of genetic variation in wild populations since the industrial revolution. The new 75%.
- Eating Healthy or Feeling Empty? How the “Healthy = Less Filling” Intuition Influences Satiety. Healthier food is perceived as less filling, unless it’s described as nutritions. People are strange.
- What is the cost of integration? Evidence from an integrated health and agriculture project to improve nutrition outcomes in Western Kenya. Not insignificant, but worth it.
- Traditional utilization and management of wild Allium plants in Inner Mongolia. 38 species, no less; many uses, much threatened.
- Haplotypes at the Phg-2 Locus Are Determining Pathotype-Specificity of Angular Leaf Spot Resistance in Common Bean. Good use being made of the CIAT genebank.
- A decade of Tropical Legumes projects: Development and adoption of improved varieties, creation of market‐demand to benefit smallholder farmers and empowerment of national programmes in sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia. US$ 67 million in from Gates Foundation, US$ 3.2 billion out in certified seed alone. Read the whole special issue for more. All starts with genebanks, though, doesn’t it. Doesn’t it? Hello? Is there anyone out there? Is this thing on?
Brainfood: Mexican maize landraces, Mediterranean wheat landraces, Grassland richness, RTBs, Gender and agrobiodiversity, Kenya pastoralists, Production and child mortality, Historical evaluation data, Drought & rice, Barley diversity, Restoration, Sweetpotato shape, Panama disease phenotyping, Solanum keys
- Single-gene resolution of locally adaptive genetic variation in Mexican maize. Let the gene editing begin.
- From landraces to improved cultivars: Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of Mediterranean wheat using SNP markers. Landraces cluster geographically, modern varieties by breeding programme.
- Global evidence of positive biodiversity effects on spatial ecosystem stability in natural grasslands. Higher species richness increases productivity in low-productivity communities, decreases it in high-productivity.
- Understanding the consequences of changes in the production frontiers for roots, tubers and bananas. Forget marketing, focus research on productivity.
- Gendered agrobiodiversity management and adaptation to climate change: differentiated strategies in two marginal rural areas of India. Women exercise more public control over agrobiodiversity in the Himalayas than in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
- Historical Ecologies of Pastoralist Overgrazing in Kenya: Long-Term Perspectives on Cause and Effect. Let pastoralists move around.
- Mortality impact of low annual crop yields in a subsistence farming population of Burkina Faso under the current and a 1.5°C warmer climate in 2100. Low production in any given year responsible for considerable child mortality, which is likely to double because of climate change. If nothing is done.
- Historical phenotypic data from seven decades of seed regeneration in a wheat ex situ collection. Don’t throw any data away.
- Mapping drought-induced changes in rice area in India. 16% less rice area in a drought year compared to a normal year.
- Development of a Multi-parent Population for Genetic Mapping and Allele Discovery in Six-Row Barley. Asian material has flowering time variants found nowhere else.
- Ex situ collections and their potential for the restoration of extinct plants. There’s no excuse for not trying in situ.
- Assessing the remarkable morphological diversity and transcriptomic basis of leaf shape in Ipomoea batatas (sweetpotato). Mainly genetic, at least as currently measured.
- An Improved Phenotyping Protocol for Panama Disease in Banana. A single person can now inoculate 250 plants per hour.
- Dichotomous keys to the species of Solanum L. (Solanaceae) in continental Africa, Madagascar (incl. the Indian Ocean islands), Macaronesia and the Cape Verde Islands. Monumental.
Nibbles: Crop map, Breeding, CePaCT, African coconut, Cacao & vanilla, Malaysian fruits, Basmati, Rice saving, Grapevine diversity, Wild foods, Cornell hemp genebank, Potato breeding course, Chinese aquaculture, Chinese trees, Plant identification, Menu language, Shepherding, US forests, Global fires, Red Listing, MERL, Pea gin
- Nice vintage map of global crop distribution, starring wheat.
- CIMMYT DG on the glories of plant breeding, starring wheat (p. 6).
- Australia supports Pacific genebank. No wheat in sight.
- Saving coconut. No, not in the Pacific.
- The history of chocolate and vanilla. The crops, not the ice cream.
- Speaking of ice cream: maybe someone should try making some out of these tasty endangered fruits before it’s too late.
- Speaking of tasty: basmati.
- Speaking of rice: this guy has 1420 varieties.
- Hey, it’s not about the taste: it’s the ethics too, stupid. But, being wine, it’s also about the taste.
- Speaking of ethics: what good is forest conservation if it stops people accessing wild foods.
- At least one senator gets it.
- You’ve got a few weeks to register for a potato breeding course. Using CWR, no less.
- Amazing pics of Chinese aquaculture.
- Chinese efforts to save ancient trees. No connection with above at all. And no pics.
- Google will identify your plants. Of course it will.
- Speaking at Google: a linguist (Dan Jurafsky) on menus.
- Next generation shepherding in South Africa. No sign of Google, though. For now.
- Interactive atlas of US forests. There goes the afternoon. Imagine if if ever got mashed up with the global fire atlas.
- Automated Red List assessments. Wow.
- The MERL has an exhibition on the history of farming. One of my favourite museums, one of my favourite topics. My cup runneth over.
- Gin made from peas. Sometimes I hate farming.
Brainfood: Biodiversity & production, Tertiary tomato, Maya collapse, Restoration opportunities, Mixtures, Synchronous crop failure, Boswellia future, Soya diversity, Genetic load, Domestication, Ag & biodiversity, Cotton domestication, Food preservation
- Contributions of biodiversity to the sustainable intensification of food production. They are various and considerable, but context-specific. See additional data here. See also everything below…
- Development of interspecific hybrids between Solanum lycopersicum L. and S. sisymbriifolium Lam. via embryo calli. Tertiary genepool? No problem.
- The Role of Diet in Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change among Early Agricultural Communities in the Maya Lowlands. More diverse diets allowed Maya to survive the droughts of the Late Pre-Classic Period (AD 100–300) better than those of the Terminal Classic Period (AD 750–1000).
- Global restoration opportunities in tropical rainforest landscapes. Massive mashing up of spatial datasets concludes that top 10% areas for potential return of benefits and feasibility of forest restoration are located largely within conservation hotspots and in countries committed to the Bonn Challenge, but cover only a small portion of the Key Biodiversity Area network.
- Plant domestication disrupts biodiversity effects across major crop types. Wild relatives are better at living in diverse mixtures than their descendant crops.
- Synchronous crop failures and climate-forced production variability. ENSO has caused global crop failures. Which are likely to get more frequent.
- Frankincense in peril. Because of cows and fire.
- Identification of Loci Controlling Adaptation in Chinese Soybean Landraces via a Combination of Conventional and Bioclimatic GWAS. Three geographic sub-populations among 2000 diverse landraces; 12 SNPs associated with variation in 3 bioclimatic variables at collecting sites.
- Estimates of genetic load in small populations suggest extensive purging of deleterious alleles. Counterintuitively, rapid declines cause worse genetic load for more diverse species.
- Grazing animals drove domestication of grain crops. Small-seeded herbaceous annuals were mainly animal-dispersed, which meant they grew in dense stands on nitrogen hotspots near water sources, making them easily harvested. Hey presto, crops!
- Global impacts of future cropland expansion and intensification on agricultural markets and biodiversity. Expansion mostly threatens biodiversity in Central and South America, intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa, India and China. Prices lower everywhere.
- Domestication and varietal diversification of Old World cultivated cottons (Gossypium sp.) in the Antiquity. G. arboreum first domesticated in Baluchistan 8000 years BP, G. herbaceum much later in Nubia. But they’re really difficult to tell apart in archaeological remains.
- ‘Preserve or perish’: food preservation practices in the early modern kitchen. The housewife as natural philosopher.