- Africa’s Land System Trajectories 1980–2005. Biomass harvest increase has mainly come from expansion, save in the north and south.
- Status, genetic diversity and gaps in sorghum germplasm from South Asia conserved at ICRISAT genebank. Still a lot of work to do.
- Indirect estimates reveal the potential of transgene flow in the crop–wild–weed Sorghum bicolor complex in its centre of origin, Ethiopia. Could be relevant if transgenic sorghum were ever to be developed, and deployed in Ethiopia.
- Are Neglected Plants the Food for the Future? The latest hope is the SDGs.
- Potential of Kersting’s groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal & Baudet] and prospects for its promotion. Not enough mutations, apparently. Hope that won’t be an issue for the SDGs.
- Back to the Future – Tapping into Ancient Grains for Food Diversity. They need to pay their way. Enough mutations, though, I guess.
- Genomic ancestry estimation quantifies use of wild species in grape breeding. 11-76% cultivated ancestry across 60-odd hybrids, one third 50%. More back-crosses to cultivated needed.
- Genome scans reveal candidate domestication and improvement genes in cultivated sunflower, as well as post-domestication introgression with wild relatives. Wild introgressions cover 10% of cultivated genome, and there is some in every modern cultivar tested.
- MycoDB, a global database of plant response to mycorrhizal fungi. Monumental.
- Contrasting effects of defaunation on aboveground carbon storage across the global tropics. Loss of dispersal animals bad for C sequestration, but only in African, American and South Asian forests.
Nibbles: Indian ag, West African rice, Interdependence day, Animal cryo, NASA, Biopiracy?
- “…nor could they survive during inclement phases of a seasonal climate with a cheery hardiness the way our traditional varieties could.
- “How does the centrality of rice production mediate social reality among the Jola?”
- “When we say, ‘As American as apple pie,’ we think of baseball and hot dogs without ever considering not one ingredient in apple pie originates from what we call the United States.”
- “The absolute minimum we should do is preserve tissues from these animals in such a way they can be thawed and grown again.”
- “We’re botanists; we’re plant experts. Plus we had this humongous network of students, citizen scientists who were eager to do so much research that scientists at Kennedy simply didn’t have time to do.”
- “It is essential that all countries join and ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol.”
Brainfood: Med diet, Rice relatives, Local breeds, NGS, Extremophiles, Farmers’ rights, Wild foods
- Prototypical versus contemporary Mediterranean Diet. They’re basically the same.
- Development of Oryza sativa L. by Oryza punctata Kotschy ex Steud. monosomic addition lines with high value traits by interspecific hybridization. A very distant relative finally succumbs.
- Local breeds – rural heritage or new market opportunities? Colliding views on the conservation and sustainable use of landraces. Apparently, both is not an answer. At least in Finland.
- Exploring Genetic Diversity in Plants Using High-Throughput Sequencing Techniques. No excuse now.
- Extremophyte adaptations to salt and water deficit stress. Any crop wild relatives, though?
- Seed wars and farmers’ rights: comparative perspectives from Brazil and India. Stewardship vs ownership.
- Quantifying the economic contribution of wild food harvests to rural livelihoods: A global-comparative analysis. Three quarters of rural families use wild foods, but their contribution to income averages only 4%. Must be the nutrition, I guess.
Plant Conservation and the SDGs
Dr Sarada Krishnan of the Denver Botanic Gardens kindly sent us this summary of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation’s conference on Plant Conservation and the Sustainable Development Goals, mentioned yesterday on the blog. Many thanks, Sarada. If many readers want more details on one or two topics in particular, we can perhaps ask her for a follow-up.
The conference was attended by 140 delegates from 27 countries. Here is a summary of topics presented at the conference:
- Botanic gardens can play a big role in conservation of crop wild relatives.
- Plant conservation needs to have people at its center.
- Simplify messages to reach various audiences.
- Economic impact of invasives: the role botanic gardens can play (example of RBG Sydney with Wollemi pine and Phytophthora cinnamomi).
- Importance of indigenous knowledge to plant conservation.
- Update to the North American Botanic Gardens Strategy for Plant Conservation in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- We need to promote more good news (rather than doom and gloom): spread our success stories #EarthOptimism.
- Kew’s role in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) implementation and other conservation topics in various countries (Brazil, South Africa, China, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Canada, Ecuador, Azerbaijan).
- Capacity building (example of the Sud Expert Plantes programme (SEP2D) by France).
- Access and benefit sharing for seed banking by the Australian Seed Bank Partnership.
- The US National Seed Strategy developed by 12 US federal agencies.
- Role of horticulture in plant conservation and lack of capacity in horticultural skills.
- Conservation genetics tools.
Very intense two days with great variety of topics!
Nibbles: Wild pig, Indicators, Ethiopian agrobiodiversity, Traditional crops, Purple haze, Fraises des Bois, Chef prize, Breadfruit, Sorghum nutrition, Moringa, NWFP, Barcoding, Arnold Arboretum
- Warty pig saved by genomics.
- So apparently there’s a Biodiversity Barometer. Via the Biodiversity Indicator Partnership.
- Traditional crops survive, but under threat, in Ethiopian highlands. And a whole issue of Farming Matters on why it’s important that they do survive.
- More on that purple wheat heirloom variety coming back from the brink.
- Going back to the original European strawberry. No, I’m not going to make any jokes about that.
- There’s going to be a Nobel for chefs. If they can make use of breadfruit, they’ll deserve it.
- Yes, sorghum rotis can taste good. And they’re good for you.
- Big Moringa shill makes case for next superfood :)
- Did I already say that FAO’s Nonwood Forest Products Newsletter seems to have been resurrected? Do subscribe.
- On my work blog, I say genebanks could be a bit more like supermarkets.
- Collecting trees.