- 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: Production stability, Mapping crops, Nigerian fish, Seed quality, C&E meta-data, Robots, Multivariate stats, Almond domestication, Fruit chilling, Forages & soils, Groundnut mini-core, PAs & CC, Indonesian diets, NUS, Asian-African animals
- Sensitivity of grain yields to historical climate variability in India. Other cereals are less sensitive than rice.
- Monitoring Changes in the Cultivation of Pigeonpea and Groundnut in Malawi Using Time Series Satellite Imagery for Sustainable Food Systems. Pigeonpea cultivation has expanded so much in response to Asian markets you can track it from space. But for how long?
- The relationship between forests and freshwater fish consumption in rural Nigeria. Fish need forests.
- Temporal patterns of seed quality development, decline, and timing of maximum quality during seed development and maturation. “…when maximum quality is first attained, and for how long it is maintained during seed development and maturation, varies with genotype and environment.” Oh, great.
- Modeling Crop Genetic Resources Phenotyping Information Systems. Managing meta-data on characterization and evaluation data.
- In vivo human-like robotic phenotyping of leaf traits in maize and sorghum in greenhouse. Yes, characterization and evaluation data like this.
- Ten quick tips for effective dimensionality reduction. How to analyze all that C&E data.
- Mutation of a bHLH transcription factor allowed almond domestication. A point mutation is all it took.
- Chilling accumulation in fruit trees in Spain under climate change. Some fruit trees, even in generally warm places, need a certain amount of cold to develop properly, and might not get it in the future. Maybe a point mutation will come to the rescue.
- Smart forage selection could significantly improve soil health in the tropics. Could.
- Evaluation of linkage disequilibrium, population structure, and genetic diversity in the U.S. peanut mini core collection. Can’t really use for GWAS. What a tragedy.
- Implications of climate change to the design of protected areas: The case study of small islands (Azores). The current PA system will still be ok on one island, but not on another. Has someone done this globally?
- Urbanisation, dietary change and traditional food practices in Indonesia: A longitudinal analysis. Westernization of diets is limited to Jakarta.
- Orphan crops: their importance and the urgency of improvement. They seem to be doing ok in Indonesia?
- Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets. Chickens and black rats went from Asia to the coast of E Africa in the mid-first millennium CE.
- Archaeological and biometric perspectives on the development of chicken landraces in the Horn of Africa. Or maybe earlier for chicken after all.
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.
Nibbles: Tutwiler interview, Cherokee seeds, Cryo, Bordeaux rules, Oz maize, Food as medicine, In situ CWR
- Ann Tutwiler (ex Bioversity DG) on the importance of agrobiodiversity.
- Cherokee Nation may deposit seeds in Svalbard.
- Millionth sample deposited in USDA livestock genebank.
- New grape varieties to be allowed in Bordeaux because of climate change.
- Hawkesbury heritage maize regenerated.
- Some Filipino rice is medicinal.
- Germany designates first CWR genetic reserves in Europe.
Nibbles: Bean and chili diversity, European Neolithic, Microbiota Vault, Paški sir, Freeze dried potatoes, Rice art, ABS
- Collecting beans in the American SW.
- Chilis too.
- Updated map of Neolithic expansion in Europe.
- The Microbiota Vault is a thing.
- Wind-flavoured cheese.
- But is chuño worth saving, really?
- The art of rice diversity.
- Using Jerry Maguire to explain the Plant Treaty. It is not well done. But one is surprised to see it done at all.