Information

June 7, 2016June 7, 2016

Hawaiian crop diversity festival

The Indigenous Crop Biodiversity Festival, in Maui, Hawaii, August 24-30, 2016 is a recognized parallel event to the IUCN World Conservation Congress. It offers an opportunity to explore the role of indigenous crop biodiversity conservation in food security and in reducing agricultural impacts to natural ecosystems from practitioners perspectives, as well as a look into island biodiversity conservation, in advance of the Congress. To find out more and to register for any of the many events and site visits of the week, some of which are rarely open to the public, please visit.

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June 6, 2016June 5, 2016

Brainfood: Yam protection, Gleditsia distribution, Seed systems, Conservation narratives, Roselle diversity, Hassawi extinction, Apple GWAS, Dog domestication

Disease risk perception and diversity of management strategies by farmers: The case of anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides on water yams (Dioscorea alata) in Guadeloupe. Farmers gauge the disease pretty much the way scientists do, and use a diversity of mitigation measures, including diversity.
Ghosts of Cultivation Past – Native American Dispersal Legacy Persists in Tree Distribution. “In the southern Appalachian region, honey locust distributions are more a reflection of Native American cultural practices.”
Good year, bad year: changing strategies, changing networks? A two-year study on seed acquisition in northern Cameroon. In bad years, women call on extended networks.
Conservation narratives in Peru: envisioning biodiversity in sustainable development. In terms of the relationship between conservation and development, there are biodiversity protectionists, traditionalists, localists, pragmatists, and capitalists.
Diversity analysis based on agro-morphological traits and microsatellite based markers in global germplasm collections of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.). Nicely complementary datasets show that fibre type more diverse than calyx type.
Extinction probabilities of Hassawi cattle from Saudi Arabia using Population Viability Analysis. Fancy maths gives it 20 years.
Genome to Phenome Mapping in Apple Using Historical Data. Going back to old phenotype data in GRIN allowed identification of SNPs for color, fruit firmness, and harvest time.
Genomic and archaeological evidence suggest a dual origin of domestic dogs. Independent domestications from different wolf populations in East Asia and in Western Europe, with the latter partially displacing the former.

June 1, 2016

Sustainable food security on the Cam

CCF’s ever-popular Summer Symposium series continues with an event co-organised with the Global Food Security Initiative, Cambridge Conservation Initiative, UCCRI and Centre of Development Studies. The day will explore solutions to ensuring the supply and distribution of enough food for all whilst conserving ecosystems and biodiversity in the face of population growth, economic growth and changing climate.

CCF is the Cambridge Conservation Forum, and whether their summer symposia are indeed “ever-popular” or not, this year’s edition, on Food Security, Sustainability and Conservation, does look pretty inviting. It’s on 24 June and you can book now. Worth a punt. ((See what I did there?))

May 31, 2016May 31, 2016

Celebrating maize biodiversity

Sorry for not pointing it out at the time, but the CIMMYT genebank really went all out for the International Day of Biodiversity last week, with this nifty video on Facebook…

…and something I believe is called a slate. Whatever will they think of next? Before you know it, genebanks will be doing customer follow-up surveys or something. No, wait…

May 30, 2016May 30, 2016

Brainfood: Rice & drought, Diet & biodiversity, Iranian fermentation

Genetic and root phenotype diversity in Sri Lankan rice landraces may be related to drought resistance. Fancy genotyping and phenotyping picks out landrace whose name in Sinhalese means “drought rice.”
The relationship between agricultural biodiversity, dietary diversity, household food security, and stunting of children in rural Kenya. Increasing dietary diversity could increase household food security.
Biodiversity and origin of the microbial populations isolated from Masske, a traditional Iranian dairy product made from fermented Ewe’s milk. Streptococcus thermophilus doesn’t sound like a safe thing to be drinking, but I still want to try it.
Well, what can I tell ya, that’s all that caught my eye last week. Send me your favourite paper that I missed, and I’ll summarize it in a sentence by next Monday.