- Agricultural landscapes and biodiversity in China. Traditional farming practices good for biodiversity, modern bad. Therefore need intensification, to take pressure off natural habitats. But no, wait, that usually means monocultures and chemicals, which are bad. Oh crap. No mention of genebanks.
- Innovation in input supply systems in smallholder agroforestry: seed sources, supply chains and support systems. Decentralized commercial system probably best for getting quality agroforestry seed to smallholders. Unfortunately, nobody listening.
- Characterization of Italian lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) germplasm by agronomic traits, biochemical and molecular markers. I object in principle to any paper that says a particular landrace is “the best.”
- The relationship between heterosis and genetic distances based on RAPD and AFLP markers in carrot. It is positive. Was this really not known before in carrots? What am I missing?
- Genetic diversity of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) in Vanuatu (Oceania): an appraisal of the distribution of allelic diversity (DAD) with SSR markers. 10 villages, 344 landraces, 324 distinct multilocus genotypes, genetic pattern reflects social networks. Situation in Andaman Islands not quite so interesting.
- A study of genetic diversity among Indian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars released during last 100 years. More diversity after Green Revolution than before, but steadily decreasing.
- Ex situ conservation genetics: a review of molecular studies on the genetic consequences of captive breeding programmes for endangered animal species. Restricted access, and you know what? I couldn’t care less.
- Consequences of wooded shrine rituals on vegetation conservation in West Africa: a case study from the Bwaba cultural area (West Burkina Faso). I expect there are some, but with restricted access, what’s the point of even linking?
- Evaluating sweet potato as an intervention food to prevent Vitamin A deficiency. To have an effect, you’d have to replace all the other types with orange-fleshed ones. Well, almost. Wonder whether it will be presented at the “International Scientific Symposium on Food & Nutrition Security Information: From valid measurement to effective decision-making” early next year.
- Evaluation of variability of morphological traits of selected caraway (Carum carvi L.) genotypes. They’re actually breeding this stuff in Poland. But they had to get their germplasm from botanical gardens around Europe.
- Variation in baobab seedling morphology and its implications for selecting superior planting material. There is some.
- Edible Neotropical blueberries: antioxidant and compositional fingerprint analysis. The 5 species involved have different ones.
- Population genomics and speciation in yeasts. There’s a question as to whether yeast species in fact exist in any meaningful sense.
- Cereal–forage rotations effect on biochemical characteristics of topsoil and productivity of the crops in Mediterranean environment. Continuous cereal stressed the soil.
Nibbles: Fish, Veggies, Fruit
- Sturgeon being farmed in Vietnam. What could possibly go wrong?
- Ghanaians eating all their greens to fight malnutrition.
- ICRAF goes to town on fruit trees. Well, I call that a pretty balanced and nutritious meal so far.
Nibbles: Food Deserts, Garlics, Communication, Bee breeding, Millets, Sweet potatoes, Visualizing herbaria, Medieval beer
- The Economist discovers food deserts. Money quote: “some Americans simply do not care to eat a balanced diet, while others, increasingly, cannot afford to”.
- William Woys Weaver on garlics, and America, and garlic in America.
- Agricultural Communication for Development conference. Sure. But 12 days long?
- Breeding a better bee. And why not?
- Kenya Agricultural research Institute to release three new high-yielding finger millets.
- Too many sweet potato seedlings. What’s a poor breeder to do?
- A visual history of California botanizing.
- Ah, to have lived at a time when a man got most of his calories from beer! No, wait…
Educate girls, plant a school garden, promote biodiversity
What’s not to like?
This post is simply an abuse of authorial rights to promote a project. I just received the second project report from Educate 1300 Girls By Restoring A Marrakech Garden, which I am supporting via Global Giving. Why that project? Because it is relevant to me in all sorts of ways. Maybe to you too; they still need to raise about $15,000.
During the past academic year, thirty students conducted their own field research by interviewing Marrakechi herbalists about important cultural recipes. [The Global Diversity Foundation] is now organizing a database of the girls’ findings, titled, “An Ethnobotanical Study of Five Traditional Women’s Recipes.” In the autumn of this year, the girls will be able to re-examine, analyze, and discuss their own data. We hope that this will be the first of many such educational initiatives at Lalla Aouda Saadia.
I look forward to the next report, which I hope will tell me more about those traditional recipes, and to the garden’s continued growth.
Brainfood: Benin diversity, Catalan diversity, Serbian sorghum, Flowering in barley and sunflower, Potato nutritional quality, Cacao genebank management, Potato genebank management, Caribbean cattle, Venezuelan CWR, Ecogeographic surveys, Refugia, Vegetation change, Fisheries, Botanic gardens, Crop diversity patterns, Old trees
- Diversity, geographical, and consumption patterns of traditional vegetables in sociolinguistic communities in Benin: Implications for domestication and utilization. 245 species, from 62 families, 80% wild-harvested.
- Landraces in situ conservation: A case study in high-mountain home gardens in Vall Fosca, Catalan Pyrenees, Iberian Peninsula. 39 landraces of 31 species, disappearing fast.
- Origin, history, morphology, production, improvement, and utilization of broomcorn [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] in Serbia. Summarizes 60 years of experience.
- The timing of flowering in barley and sunflower dissected. In the former, variation in photoperiod sensitivity occurred both pre- and post-domestication. In the latter, variation is clinal.
- Cultivated and wild Solanum species as potential sources for health-promoting quality traits. Some of the latter are pretty good.
- Microsatellite fingerprinting in the International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad: accession and plot homogeneity information for germplasm management. A quarter of plots were mixtures. Well that’s no good. Huge amount of stuff in this issue of PGR-CU.
- Construction of an integrated microsatellite and key morphological characteristic database of potato varieties on the EU common catalogue. So that the above doesn’t happen.
- Footprints of selection in the ancestral admixture of a New World Creole cattle breed. Lots of African and zebu blood in Guadeloupe cattle.
- Inventory of related wild species of priority crops in Venezuela. Basically a big list.
- Potential of herbarium records to sequence phenological pattern: a case study of Aconitum heterophyllum in the Himalaya. Could be used to flesh out the above kind of thing.
- Refugia: identifying and understanding safe havens for biodiversity under climate change. How to spot refugia past and future, which would be useful for the above-but-one kind of thing.
- Modelling biome shifts and tree cover change for 2050 in West Africa. Climate change leads to greening, human impact to browning.
- Comparison of modern and historical fish catches (AD 750–1400) to inform goals for marine protected areas and sustainable fisheries. Along the Kenyan coast. Amazingly, comparisons are possible, and they show a deterioration in quality and quantity.
- The biodiversity benefits of botanic gardens. They are there, despite their history with invasives, but gardens need to get their act together. Which they are doing.
- Domesticated crop richness in human subsistence cultivation systems: a test of macroecological and economic determinants. Number of crop species grown depends on latitude, habitat heterogeneity and commitment to agriculture (as opposed to foraging, herding and exchange). Can’t make up my mind if this is interesting or predictable. Maybe it is both. Would be great to apply same method to infraspecific diversity too.
- The age of monumental olive trees (Olea europaea) in northeastern Spain. Maybe over 600 years.