The call for applications for the 2010 Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship is out. Good luck!
Featured: Climate change
Andy Jarvis gets real on climate change:
Why always assume that climate change goes in the direction of negative change? … More degree days will surely shorten fruiting time, giving you production earlier. Greater extremes between maximum and minimum temperatures in the day might give you sweeter fruit. And less risk of frost early in the season during flowering could increase production. I fear we’re predisposed to always see things negatively.
Indeed we are.
Fire and crop wild relatives
As wildfires rage across much of southern Europe, causing death and destruction, it’s sometimes difficult to remember — and perhaps insensitive to mention — that this is in fact a common occurrence, even necessary for the maintenance of vegetation and biodiversity in the Mediterranean.
In the Mediterranean, as in the mediterraneoids, fire occurs where vegetation is flammable. Combustibility is not a misfortune but an adaptation: plants that burn do so because they are fire-adapted. They make fire-promoting resins and other chemicals, or they have structural adaptations, such as producing a loose, airy litter of dead leaves and twigs which dries out and burns. Their ecology involves catching fire from time to time and burning up competitors.
Still, one wonders whether this might be too much of a “good” thing, and whether we’re heading for even more with climate change. What will this mean for particular species, for example crop wild relatives? Do we know how many are fire-adapted? And do we know even for those that are so adapted whether beyond a certain frequency or intensity fire becomes a threat rather than a necessity?
Climate change and fruit
A long report in the LA Times reminds readers that climate change is not all about droughts and floods. It’s also about winter chill. Many fruit trees absolutely must have a certain number of cold days in the winter to prepare them for spring blossom and summer fruit. Those chill days are declining fast in California’s Central Valley.
“Climate change is not just about sea-level rise and polar bears,” said UC Davis researcher Eike Luedeling, lead author of the study. “It is about our food security. Climate change may make conditions less favorable to grow the crops we need to feed ourselves.”
Can’t argue with that. But are California’s fruit farmers likely to experiment, as the farmers of Kazakhstan have done, with planting different varieties, maybe even seedlings, to see whether any of these are better able to produce under different conditions? Somehow, I doubt it.
HT: The Ethicurean.
Durian galore
Ah, to be in Bukit Gantang for the Festival Jom Makan Durian! Starts tomorrow. If you’re there, let us know.
