- 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.
Nibbles: Ragone award, CC impacts, Uganda AGR genebank, Spanish livestock, Indian community genebank, COGENT in India, RTB and CC, Sudden oak death
- Diane Ragone is Distinguished Economic Botanist for 2020.
- Climate change is reducing consumable calories by about 1% a year for the top 10 crops globally.
- East Africa to get a livestock genebank. Will they use this “universal tool“?
- Meanwhile, transhumance is hanging on in Spain.
- Another community seed bank in India.
- And the international coconut genebank will survive.
- Roots, tubers and banana to increase in importance, but will need investment.
- Indigenous tribes to be involved in fight against sudden oak death in California.
Brainfood: Maya gardens, Bangladeshi jackfruits, Swedish plums, Pear core, Land sparing, Participatory trials, Cosmetics, Biodiversity & drought, Monitoring diseases, Predicting food insecurity, Kavaluation, Canola evolution, Temperate adaptation
- Learning from the Ancient Maya: Conservation of the Culture and Nature of the Maya Forest. Teaching forest gardening, before it’s too late.
- Genetic Diversity of Bangladeshi Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) over Time and Across Seedling Sources. Downward trend in time, but no difference between growers and nurseries.
- Plum Cultivars in Sweden: History and Conservation for Future Use. From 70 varieties in nurseries, to 45 in the genebank.
- Integration of expert knowledge in the definition of Swiss pear core collection. Let stakeholders choose a few, it won’t make too much of a difference to the overall diversity, and they’ll be pleased.
- Can agricultural intensification help to conserve biodiversity? A scenario study for the African continent. Land sparing is better for biodiversity and food production.
- Influence of experimental design on decentralized, on-farm evaluation of populations: a simulation study. Replicate populations of interest rather than controls, and environments.
- Botanicals used for cosmetic purposes by Xhosa women in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. 16 plants, 14 families, bark the most common component, skin complexion the most common use.
- Droughts, Biodiversity, and Rural Incomes in the Tropics. More access to natural biodiversity means smaller effect of drought during the growing season on income from crops.
- A global surveillance system for crop diseases. Could be extended to other threats to crop diversity?
- A data-driven approach improves food insecurity crisis prediction. Market data, rainfall, geography and demography predict food insecurity at village level in near real time.
- Rapid detection of stressed agricultural environments in Africa under climatic change 2000–2050 using agricultural resource indices and a hotspot mapping approach. Increasing trouble for Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent Ethiopia. But will biodiversity, disease monitoring and food insecurity prediction help?
- Kavalactones and Flavokavins Profiles Contribute to Quality Assessment of Kava (Piper methysticum G. Forst.), the Traditional Beverage of the Pacific. High-throughput HPTLC will do the job.
- Transcriptome and organellar sequencing highlights the complex origin and diversification of allotetraploid Brassica napus. 6 genetic groups: Winter rapeseed in Europe and America, Rutabaga, Spring rapeseed, Siberian kale, Winter rapeseed in East Asia, and Winter rapeseed in Europe and South Asia. No evidence of multi-origin.
- Parallels between natural selection in the cold‐adapted crop‐wild relative Tripsacum dactyloides and artificial selection in temperate adapted maize. Artificial selection for temperate adaptation in maize involved the same genes as natural selection for temperate adaptation in Tripsacum.
Nibbles: Language erosion, Cacao genebank, Singapore genebank, Coffee fund, Insect pollination, Sustainable ag
- The link between language and biodiversity loss.
- Cacao genebank does more than conserve cacao diversity.
- Singapore gets into seed-banking. Not cacao, though.
- Sachs proposes big coffee fund to ensure sustainably. No word on genebanks, though.
- If you want to increase the cultivation of an insect-pollinated crop, you should diversify your agriculture.
- Sustainable not necessarily equal to organic.
Nibbles: Half-Earth, Salmon runs, Melon book, Indian genebanks
- The Half-Earth Map is better than none.
- Repurposing rice fields in the off season to help out California’s Chinook salmon.
- Photogenic melons.
- A famous community seed bank is in trouble.
- While elsewhere in India, a new genebank takes off.