Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

January 6, 2016January 6, 2016

Yes, we have bananas

banana catalog What better way to start the new year than with an attractive catalog of banana accessions from USDA? Especially as, coincidentally, the Musa Germplasm Information System also debuts a new iteration of the website. This from a Facebook post today:

It is now possible to order ITC accessions from MGIS, an online database on genebank accessions of wild and cultivated bananas. The latest release also added information on 1,288 accessions for a total of 3,630 accessions maintained in 11 field and in vitro collections.

That Mai’a Maoli Eka cultivar in the photo from the USDA catalog of course features in MGIS, so you can order it if you like the look of it…

Ah no, wait. According to GRIN, it’s not available. Bummer.

January 5, 2016

And we’re back!

Yes, yes, I know. We haven’t blogged in a long time, and didn’t put up our usual notice that we’d be idle over the holidays. Stuff just caught up with us. But we’re back in the saddle now, and normal service will be resumed just as soon as we clear our respective backlogs.

December 14, 2015December 9, 2015

Brainfood: Grazing, Dung beetles, Intensification, Pineapple diversity, Grassland N

Behavioural Response of Pure Ankole and Crossbred (Ankole x Holstein) Cows to Seasonal Pasture Variations in Southwestern Uganda. The cross-bred cows have to eat for longer than the local breed, which makes for problems during both wet and dry seasons.
Functionally rich dung beetle assemblages are required to provide multiple ecosystem services. It’s not just about the dung removal. No word on whether cross-bred dung tastier.
Swiddens under transition: Consequences of agricultural intensification in the Amazon. Intensification without diversification is going to be a problem.
Developing single nucleotide polymorphism markers for the identification of pineapple (Ananas comosus) germplasm. High redundancy in the USDA collection, and little correspondence between horticultural classifications and genotyping.
Grassland biodiversity bounces back from long-term nitrogen addition. Pollution bad for grassland biodiversity, stopping pollution good for grassland biodiversity.

December 11, 2015

Coming blogging hiatus

Just to warn everybody that I’ll be going on holiday next week until the new year. Not entirely sure about Jeremy’s plans, but blogging will be slow from me for the next couple of weeks. But I’ll keep posting on Twitter, so follow us there to keep up to date on all the holiday season agrobiodiversity news.

December 10, 2015December 10, 2015

News from IPK

A workshop on “Genetic Resources: Conservation and Trait Improvement” is going on for the next couple of days at the German national federal genebank in Gatersleben. Our mole in the audience has just sent us the latest infographic on where IPK’s material goes. You saw it here first. Well, if you click on the photo you will see it here first.