Category: Threats

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Micronesian canoe making on the wane

How many plants does it take to make a canoe? Well, according to a great paper in the latest Conservation Biology, the answer is 27, at least in Pohnpei, both wild and cultivated. Unfortunately, canoe-making skills and knowledge are eroding fast: “Given current trends, the present generation of Pohnpeians may be the last to retain any knowledge of this traditional craft.” The authors issue a bit of a challenge at the end of their paper:

Because of the immense scale of traditional knowledge erosion in virtually all areas of the globe, we invite other researchers, conservationists, and development workers to assess the loss of traditional knowledge and practices, identify areas for interventions, and help make those interventions happen in the areas where they work. Efforts at strengthening awareness of the link between culture and the environment can be very helpful in supporting local conservation programs, and important for personal, community, and environmental well-being around the world.

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Agricultural biodiversity and desertification

Today’s much-reported UN University study on the threat of desertification sent me scurrying for information on a recent training course I had vaguely heard about on the role that genebanks could pay in combating desertification. It turned out to be called, ahem, “The Role of Genebanks in Using Agrobiodiversity to Combat Desertification.” But the search for more information was deeply frustrating. I found a few photos (scroll down a bit), but nothing else. Anyone out there know something about this workshop?

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Potato pest heads west

070627.Globodera-Pallida-IGlobodera pallida cysts. Cysts are the egg-engorged bodies of dead female nematodes. Eventually, the cysts dislodge from a plant root and the eggs hatch. Image courtesy Zafar Handoo, ARS.

American agricultural scientists have confirmed the presence of the pale potato cyst nematode (Globera pallida) in soil in Idaho. This is the first time it has been reported in the US, although it has been in Canada for at least a year. The report from USDA makes much of the skilled science needed to distinguish G. pallida from a close relative, the tobacco cyst nematode, (G. tabacum), and we applaud that. What it doesn’t say is that economic losses amount to roughly 2 tonnes per hectare for every 20 eggs per gram of soil. Total losses can approach 80% in the case of heavy infestations. the main means of control is to grow resistant varieties. In the UK this resulted in the rise of Maris Piper, a potato that, in my opinion, is little better than wet blotting paper.

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European corn borer not so boring

Jeremy had a post recently on how to keep track of emerging pests and diseases. Certainly services like ProMED-mail and HealthMap are incredibly valuable. But perhaps even better would be a way to predict what a disease might do before it actually does it, for example as a result of climate change. That’s what some Czech researchers have done for the European corn borer, a pest of maize. ((There’s also an assessment of the risk of spread to new areas in a recent study of the root-parasite Orobanche crenata, but that paper did not specifically consider climate change in any detail.)) They modelled its life cycle on the basis of daily weather data, both current, to see if the model fit reality, and possible future, to predict what the pest might do under different climate change scenarios. The result was that the corn borer will cover the entire agricultural area of the country by 2040-2075, by which time “maize is expected to partly replace traditional cereals (e.g. winter wheat, rye, etc.).” That’s a frightening prospect. Better start planning – and breeding – for it now. ((A recent paper on wheat spot blotch in the East Gangetic Plains of India, Bangladesh and Nepal describes how breeding has made good resistant varieties available, but adds that climate change is tilting the playing field in favour of the disease, which means that breeders can’t afford to rest on their laurels.))