GIS – Page 22 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

May 6, 2020

Our climate envelope takes a licking

The headlines for coverage of the paper “Future of the human climate niche” will no doubt be about the fact that over the coming 50 years, absent migration or mitigation, 1 to 3 billion people look like they’ll end up living outside the climatic conditions our species has gotten used to over the past 6000 years. But I can’t help thinking about something else. What are those bits of the human climate envelope where there is currently so little agriculture and livestock? I’ve drawn little white ovals around them in this figure from the paper.

April 21, 2020April 20, 2020

Nibbles: Tissue culture, Kenya pulses, Remote sensing, Planetary Computer, CIAT genebank, Faba bean, Cassava breeding, European re-wilding, Russian citrus, Green wine

Special Issue “Role of Plant Tissue Culture in Agricultural Research and Production.” Deadline: 15 September. This year, I imagine.
Kenya decolonizing it’s pulse sector.
And it may be visible from space.
Somebody mention space? Microsoft is way ahead of you.
CIAT’s genebank working through lockdown, denies Phaseolus is colonial.
How about soya then? That’s pretty colonial, surely? Ah, but faba is the new soya. Census takers unavailable for comment.
Speaking of CIAT and its genebank, the rise and rise of cassava in Asia. And Nigeria? Let the neo-colonialism discourse begin.
Re-wilding is not colonialism, is it?
You can grow your lemons underground if it’s cold. Or just for the hell of it, frankly, because why not? Oh, yeah, there’s also breeding.
Booze goes green. But not so green as to support genebanks.

April 17, 2020April 17, 2020

Nibbles: Native American seeds, Peasant’s Struggle, IWYP, Taxonomy booklet, Phylogenetics booklet, Lost apples, Yak threat, Online mapping, Sampling strategy

Native Americans are coping with a coronavirus-caused food shortage by seed saving. Among other things.
On the International Day of Peasant’s Struggle, even.
IWYP science brief on using wheat wild relatives in breeding.
Really nice Meise Botanic Garden publication on botanical nomenclature.
And to complement the above: Phylogenetics in the Genomic Era.
More old apples found. I’m beginning to think the whole lost apples thing is a scam.
But losing yaks is a definite possibility.
Nature Map Explorer is online. Rejoice.
Sean Hoban on calculating how much to collect and conserve. Without using the above.

April 15, 2020April 15, 2020

Nibbles: Joy of seeds, CC risk map, Community seed banks, Genebanks

Yes, what does make seeds so incredible?
Biodiversity risk from climate change: the interactive online map.
Community seed banks for farmers’ rights. And not only.
Genebanks in a time of coronavirus.
SPC genebank is trying to deal with COVID-19.
The USDA genebank at Ft Collins soldiers on.

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020

Brainfood: PFM, Endemic diversity, VAM, Food systems, Forages, Ganja taxonomy, Maize phenomics, Yield maps, Cassava breeding, Diversification, Distributions

The illusion of participatory forest management success in nature conservation. Success is in the eye of the beholder.
Back to the future of a rare plant species of the Chihuahuan desert: tracing distribution patterns across time and genetic diversity as a basis for conservation actions. A combination of genetic analysis and niche modelling shows that population structure is due to habitat, not geography.
High‐throughput phenotyping reveals growth of Medicago truncatula is positively affected by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi even at high soil phosphorus availability. And affected differently during the course of plant growth.
Global drivers of food system (un)sustainability: A multi-country correlation analysis. Most drivers are driving sustainability in the wrong direction.
Progress and Challenges in Ex Situ Conservation of Forage Germplasm: Grasses, Herbaceous Legumes and Fodder Trees. Highly palatable leguminous woody species tick a lot of boxes. We know what to do. Let’s do it.
A classification of endangered high-THC cannabis (Cannabis sativa subsp. indica) domesticates and their wild relatives. One subspecies, 4 botanical varieties? Well, that’s like your opinion, man.
Phenomic selection and prediction of maize grain yield from near‐infrared reflectance spectroscopy of kernels. Yeah, but can you do it in the field?
Global dataset of historical yields v1.2 and v1.3 aligned version. For maize, rice, wheat and soybean, for the period 1981-2016. No NIRS in sight.
Cassava breeding and agronomy in Asia: 50 years of history and future directions. 50% yield increase in 20 years. Is that good?
Decision-Making to Diversify Farm Systems for Climate Change Adaptation. Define goals, assess enabling & disabling factors, quantify risks, look for gaps in functional diversity, pick some interventions, evaluate & learn.
Connecting species’ geographical distributions to environmental variables: range maps versus observed points of occurrence. Points are better than polygons.