Threats

March 11, 2011March 11, 2011

Genebanks and earthquakes

As we watch the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Japan, and mourn the loss of life, we should also reflect on the possible danger to genebanks. The US Geological Survey have a real-time earthquake Google Earth plug-in, and you can download a lot of genebank locations from WIEWS. Mash the two together and zoom in on Japan and you get this.

Fortunately, we’re not getting any indications of damage to Japanese genebanks (the red squares), so far. Something similar could probably be done with threat from tsunamis.

March 4, 2011March 4, 2011

Nibbles: UG99, Synsepalum dulciforum

Slim pickings 1: “Rust never sleeps.”
Slim pickings 2: silly idea for solving world hunger.

February 28, 2011February 28, 2011

Nibbles: Flora, Agronomy podcasts, Stats, GFAR, Horses, Lettuce, Churst forests, Brazil nut, Grassland diversity, Baobab, Flotation, Botanic gardens and invasives, Nutrigenomics

Picture guide to West African plants. Includes agrobiodiversity!
Iowa State Agronomy podcasts. Some cool stuff. Check out the one on “Modeling Seed Germination Over Time to Decide When to Regenerate Seed Lots in Long-term Storage.”
A “formal global program to develop subnational agricultural land-use statistics“? Riiiiight.
GFAR meeting on sustainable use of agrobiodiversity says “[w]e need to initiate solid and inclusive actions to build concerted and practical actions on sustainable use.” Well they do say actions speak louder than words.
Researcher “trying to remove the perception that hackneys are ‘half-crazed.'” I’d rather pay to save them if they were crazy, but that’s me.
Romaine: germplasm to breeding lines. But to cultivars? Private sector to pick up the slack.
Crops not mentioned among species that save our lives.
Saving sacred groves in Ethiopia. By building pit latrines. Well why not?
Brazil nut spread by people.
A trade-off between species and genetic diversity? Say it
ain’t so!
Today’s iconic species threatened by climate change is the baobab.
An Egyptian archaeobotanical blog.
Botanic gardens can threaten biodiversity.
Nature has (or had, it’s a couple months old) a supplement on nutrigenomics.

February 18, 2011February 17, 2011

The way things were

Mr El-Sayed Mohamed El-Azazi, Executive Director of the Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank, has posted a comment to one of our previous posts about the looting of his genebank. It includes a link the following presentation on what the place looked like before the fateful day. The call has gone out for help replacing lost equipment. One can only hope it will be heeded.

Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank Before 25/01/2011

More PowerPoint presentations from elsayed mohamed elazazi

February 17, 2011February 17, 2011

Nibbles: Food prices, Wheat breeding, Potato Park, Mead, Peanut processing

Is the World Producing Enough Food? The NY Times has the answer(s).
Aussies trying to get to grips with salinity through breeding. Very cool, but maybe they should just stop growing wheat and think of some other crop?
Potato Park potatoes to be parked in the Bóveda Global de Semillas de Svalbard.
You know what those naughty Vikings used to say: “Let there be mirth, mead and fornication!”
Adding value to peanuts in Bolivia. KIT video.