- Diazotrophic Endophytes of Poplar and Willow for Growth Promotion of Rice Plants in Nitrogen-Limited Conditions. No doubt this will be touted as The Next Big Thing.
- Assessing global dietary habits: a comparison of national estimates from the FAO and the Global Dietary Database. FAO overestimates grains and vegetables, underestimates beans and nuts.
- Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and the promotion of food and nutrition sovereignty and security in Brazil. Experience suggests that interventions need to be “intersectoral, decentralized and framed in order to allow for institutional coordination.”
- Assessment of genetic relationships among cultivated and wild Rubus accessions using AFLP markers. 15 species and some hybrids between them in Japan.
- Characteristics for evaluating the conservation value of species hybrids. And some of those hybrids may need conserving too.
- Prioritization for conservation of Iranian native cattle breeds based on genome-wide SNP data. Some of the breeds are in trouble.
- The taxonomic riddle of Chenopodium album L. complex (Amaranthaceae). Three ploidy levels and lots of variation in a wild-weedy-domesticated vegetable complex.
- Does agroforestry conserve trees? A comparison of tree species diversity between farmland and forest in mid-hills of central Himalaya. It can be a complement, but never a substitute, for protected areas.
- Sphagnum farming: the promised land for peat bog species? Yes, but do it on degraded peatland, and with long rotation cycles.
The size of the task
#sabiennial a glimpse and summary of aspects of the state of plant #biodiversity pic.twitter.com/fwDnquaPoN
— Donat Agosti (@myrmoteras) August 28, 2015
Not much better for crop wild relatives, I suspect. And this doesn’t even mention genetic diversity. And the clock is ticking.
Potatoes in the Arctic
Wonderful to see indigenous leaders from the Parque de la Papa — joined by Alejandro Argumedo of Asociacion ANDES, the Director General of FAO, Graziano de Silva, and Marie Haga of the Global Crop Diversity Trust — deposit botanical seeds of their native potatoes, which they themselves produced with help from CIP, in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. A great example of collaboration and complementarity between on farm and ex situ conservation.
Banaue Rice Terraces get the drone treatment
Here is the panorama of the Banaue Rice Terraces from Chris's drone, 23 August 2015.
Posted by Gene Hettel on Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Brainfood: Citrus colours, Soil biodiversity portal, Bean genome, Food diversity & security, French landscape diversity, US pigs, Alien crops, Thai food retail
- Exploring the diversity in Citrus fruit colouration to decipher the relationship between plastid ultrastructure and carotenoid composition. New, weird plastids mean new, weird colours.
- Towards a global platform for linking soil biodiversity data. A DivSeek for soils?
- A reference genome for common bean and genome-wide analysis of dual domestications. Not sure how we missed this. Two domestications confirmed, with distinct genomic signatures.
- Variability of On-Farm Food Plant Diversity and Its Contribution to Food Security: A Case Study of Smallholder Farming Households in Western Kenya. No relationship between farm diversity and food security. Say what?
- What is the plant biodiversity in a cultural landscape? A comparative, multi-scale and interdisciplinary study in olive groves and vineyards (Mediterranean France). Low intensity management with an eye to heritage is good for diversity. But, given the above, so what?
- Relationships among and variation within rare breeds of swine. American pig breeds are real. Mostly.
- Alien Crop Resources and Underutilized Species for Food and Nutritional Security of India. Bring them on!
- Traditional, modern or mixed? Perspectives on social, economic, and health impacts of evolving food retail in Thailand. It would be a pity of fresh markets were to disappear.