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Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
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- June 16, 2009
- 07:00 AM
- 1,347 views
Climate change: predictions hotting up
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Faced with pessimistic predictions of the impact of climate change, it’s too easy to throw your hands up in the air and cry “there’s nothing to be done”. Or, as a few people still do, to throw your hands up in the air and cry “there’s no need to do anything”. But if they [...]... Read more »
Burke, M., Lobell, D., & Guarino, L. (2009) Shifts in African crop climates by 2050, and the implications for crop improvement and genetic resources conservation. Global Environmental Change. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.04.003
- January 9, 2010
- 02:26 AM
- 1,270 views
How fast will this climate change be anyway?
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Well, in terms of distance along the Earth’s surface, about 400 m per year on average, ranging from 80 m per year in mountainous regions to 1.26 km per year in deserts. That’s according to a new paper in Nature by Loarie et al. Compare that with figures of postglacial migration rates of ... Read more »
Loarie, S., Duffy, P., Hamilton, H., Asner, G., Field, C., & Ackerly, D. (2009) The velocity of climate change. Nature, 462(7276), 1052-1055. DOI: 10.1038/nature08649
- January 21, 2008
- 04:06 PM
- 1,204 views
More to maize evolution than selection
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Our thanks to Hannes Dempewolf for this guest post.
What forces drive maize evolution and what factors contribute to the generation of maize agrobiodiversity? This question has been the focus of a recent study, published in PNAS.1
Contrary to the popular opinion that maize diversity at present is largely a result of artificial selection on ... Read more »
G Dyer, & J E Taylor. (2008) A crop population perspective on maize seed systems in Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(2), 470-475. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706321105
- September 18, 2010
- 07:53 AM
- 1,145 views
Getting the most out of wild tomatoes
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Where should breeders look for traits like drought resistance among the landraces and wild relatives of crops? The FIGS crowd says: in dry places, of course. And they have a point. But it may not be as simple as that, as a recent paper on wild tomatoes shows. The authors looked at the diversity of [...]... Read more »
XIA, H., CAMUS-KULANDAIVELU, L., STEPHAN, W., TELLIER, A., & ZHANG, Z. (2010) Nucleotide diversity patterns of local adaptation at drought-related candidate genes in wild tomatoes. Molecular Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04762.x
- October 21, 2010
- 03:23 AM
- 1,140 views
Links between trait and ecogeographic data found for Nordic barley landraces
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
As promised yesterday, here’s a summary of Dag Terje Endresen’s recent paper, by the author himself. Focused Identification of Germplasm (FIGS, Mackay and Street, 2004) is a new method to select plant genetic resources for the improvement of food crops. A recent paper in Crop Science (Endresen, 2010) describes how climate data (derived from the [...]... Read more »
Endresen, D. (2010) Predictive Association between Trait Data and Ecogeographic Data for Nordic Barley Landraces. Crop Science, 50(6), 2418. DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2010.03.0174
- January 5, 2011
- 07:22 AM
- 1,133 views
Maize mystery solved
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Joost van Heerwarden and co-workers have solved a problem in our understanding of maize domestication. Previous work had shown that maize originated from annual called teosinte, Zea mays subspecies parviglumis, a wild species that occurs in low and mid-elevation regions of south-west Mexico. This made the Rio Balsas area, where parviglumis occurs, the most likely [...]... Read more »
van Heerwaarden J, Doebley J, Briggs WH, Glaubitz JC, Goodman MM, de Jesus Sanchez Gonzalez J, & Ross-Ibarra J. (2010) Genetic signals of origin, spread, and introgression in a large sample of maize landraces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 21189301
Matsuoka Y, Vigouroux Y, Goodman MM, Sanchez G J, Buckler E, & Doebley J. (2002) A single domestication for maize shown by multilocus microsatellite genotyping. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(9), 6080-4. PMID: 11983901
Piperno DR, Ranere AJ, Holst I, Iriarte J, & Dickau R. (2009) Starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium B.P. maize from the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(13), 5019-24. PMID: 19307570
- March 19, 2009
- 04:00 PM
- 1,109 views
When and where was rice domesticated?
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
A paper by Dorian Fuller and his colleagues in this week’s Science sets out three kinds of evidence that help to pinpoint the time and place of rice domestication in eastern China. The site is Tianluoshan, just north of the current town of Hemudu on Hangzhou Bay. The water table is very high, which has [...]... Read more »
Fuller, D., & Qin, L. (2009) Water management and labour in the origins and dispersal of Asian rice. World Archaeology, 41(1), 88-111. DOI: 10.1080/00438240802668321
- May 7, 2009
- 01:00 AM
- 1,087 views
Modern rice varieties (can sometimes) increase genetic diversity
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
People say that introducing high-yielding crop varieties threatens agricultural biodiversity. Farmers adopt the modern varieties and abandon their traditional varieties, so that the overall genetic diversity falls as a result. They’re right, but not every time. A new paper published online in Field Crops Research shows that genetic erosion need not be the unintended consequence [...]... Read more »
Steele, K., Gyawali, S., Joshi, K., Shrestha, P., Sthapit, B., & Witcombe, J. (2009) Has the introduction of modern rice varieties changed rice genetic diversity in a high-altitude region of Nepal?. Field Crops Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.fcr.2009.04.002
- November 4, 2010
- 05:42 AM
- 1,058 views
Markets and on farm conservation: it’s complicated
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Eating blue tortilla chips during a recent visit to the US reminded me that I had intended to blog about a paper just out in the Journal of Latin American Geography. Entitled “Specialty maize varieties in Mexico: A case study in market-driven agro-biodiversity conservation,” it looks in detail at the economics of growing blue and [...]... Read more »
Alder Keleman, ., & Jonathan Hellin, . (2009) Specialty Maize Varieties in Mexico: A Case Study in Market-Driven Agro-Biodiversity Conservation. Journal of Latin American Geography, 8(2), 147-174. DOI: 10.1353/lag.0.0061
- March 24, 2009
- 03:00 PM
- 1,052 views
This is not a pistic
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Luigi’s Nibble this morning prompted me to look again for one of the seminal papers in the Italian use of wild agrobiodiversity: Pistic, traditional food from Western Friuli, N.E. Italy. The abstract says:
Western Friuli, Italy, there is a small area near the town of Pordenone where an ancient rite of spring is still carried out. [...]... Read more »
Maurizio G. Paoletti, A. L. Dreon, & G. G. Lorenzoni. (1995) Pistic, traditional food from Western Friuli, N.E. Italy . Economic Botany, 49(1), 26-30. DOI: 10.1007/BF02862273
- March 24, 2011
- 03:58 AM
- 1,042 views
The climate–demography vulnerability index of my mother-in-law
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Another dispatch from the outer reaches of GISland. Yesterday’s post on the likely consequences of climate change around my mother-in-law’s farm in Kenya got me thinking that it would be nice to see where that locality fits in the global vulnerability scene. One can actually do that thanks to a recent paper in Global Ecology [...]... Read more »
Samson, J., Berteaux, D., McGill, B., & Humphries, M. (2011) Geographic disparities and moral hazards in the predicted impacts of climate change on human populations. Global Ecology and Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00632.x
- May 6, 2011
- 01:54 AM
- 1,026 views
Plant traits analyzed globally
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
When we talk about plant traits here we are usually referring to things like characterization and evaluation descriptors, and how they vary within crops. But there’s an ambitious initiative underway to document “the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and phenological characteristics of plants and their organs” — some 1500 of them — across the world’s entire [...]... Read more »
Moles, A., Wallis, I., Foley, W., Warton, D., Stegen, J., Bisigato, A., Cella-Pizarro, L., Clark, C., Cohen, P., Cornwell, W.... (2011) Putting plant resistance traits on the map: a test of the idea that plants are better defended at lower latitudes. New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03732.x
- April 14, 2011
- 01:14 AM
- 1,022 views
New insights into barley domestication
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
We asked one of the co-authors, Ian Dawson, who’s an old friend, to briefly summarize for us a paper just out in New Phytologist on the domestication of barley. Here is his contribution. Thanks a lot, Ian, and keep ‘em coming… The power of new technologies to explore crop evolution is illustrated by a just [...]... Read more »
Russell, J., Dawson, I., Flavell, A., Steffenson, B., Weltzien, E., Booth, A., Ceccarelli, S., Grando, S., & Waugh, R. (2011) Analysis of 1000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in geographically matched samples of landrace and wild barley indicates secondary contact and chromosome-level differences in diversity around domestication genes. New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03704.x
- October 11, 2010
- 05:35 AM
- 1,006 views
Ex situ conservation in botanical gardens in theory and practice
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Three papers on the role of botanic gardens in ex situ conservation have recently come across my desk, one of them a meta-level thing, the other two more fine-grained. I think it may be worth discussing them all together. Science had a longish piece by Elizabeth Pennisi out in the 5 October edition entitled “Tending [...]... Read more »
Pennisi E. (2010) Tending the global garden. Science (New York, N.Y.), 329(5997), 1274-7. PMID: 20829463
Akopian, J., Sarukhanyan, N., Gabrielyan, I., Vanyan, A., Mikić, A., Smýkal, P., Kenicer, G., Vishnyakova, M., Sinjushin, A., Demidenko, N.... (2010) Reports on establishing an ex situ site for ‘beautiful’ vavilovia (Vavilovia formosa) in Armenia. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10722-010-9606-0
Enßlin, A., Sandner, T., & Matthies, D. (2010) Consequences of ex situ cultivation of plants: Genetic diversity, fitness and adaptation of the monocarpic Cynoglossum officinale L. in botanic gardens. Biological Conservation. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2010.09.001
- January 30, 2012
- 07:33 AM
- 1,004 views
Absence of evidence is, er, well, absence of evidence — even for agrobiodiversity and health
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
It has been a bit of a rough week for people who prefer their grand policy pronouncements backed with a teeny bit of evidence. Like us. Two big papers, in important journals, have concluded that there is very little evidence that agriculturally improving dietary diversity feeds into better nutrition and health. In the British Medical [...]... Read more »
Masset, E., Haddad, L., Cornelius, A., & Isaza-Castro, J. (2012) Effectiveness of agricultural interventions that aim to improve nutritional status of children: systematic review. BMJ, 344(jan17 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d8222
Termote, C., Bwama Meyi, M., Dhed'a Djailo, B., Huybregts, L., Lachat, C., Kolsteren, P., & Van Damme, P. (2012) A Biodiverse Rich Environment Does Not Contribute to a Better Diet: A Case Study from DR Congo. PLoS ONE, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030533
Frison EA, Smith IF, Johns T, Cherfas J, & Eyzaguirre PB. (2006) Agricultural biodiversity, nutrition, and health: making a difference to hunger and nutrition in the developing world. Food and nutrition bulletin, 27(2), 167-79. PMID: 16786983
Frison, E., Cherfas, J., & Hodgkin, T. (2011) Agricultural Biodiversity Is Essential for a Sustainable Improvement in Food and Nutrition Security. Sustainability, 3(1), 238-253. DOI: 10.3390/su3010238
- October 13, 2008
- 10:53 AM
- 998 views
Of cabbages and kings and laws and asses
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
This is a heartwarming tale of a group of farmers, isolated from the mainstream, seeking new products for a growing market, realizing that they have lost some of their traditional knowledge and their traditional varieties, and working closely with scientists in a participatory plant breeding effort to get what they need.
So far, so familiar.
The kicker [...]... Read more »
Véronique Chable, Mathieu Conseil, Estelle Serpolay, & François Lagadec. (2008) Organic varieties for cauliflowers and cabbages in Brittany: from genetic resources to participatory plant breeding. Euphytica, 164(2), 521-529. DOI: 10.1007/s10681-008-9749-7
- July 24, 2009
- 04:47 AM
- 981 views
Forays in fermentation
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
There’s a couple of interesting articles about cereal fermentation in the latest Food Microbiology. Both basically say that fermentation is a useful way of getting more nutrition out of your staples. Rob Nout describes how various traditional fermented dishes are made in Africa and Asia, ranging from kenkey in Ghana to idli in Sri Lanka. [...]... Read more »
Nout, M. (2009) Rich nutrition from the poorest – cereal fermentations in Africa and Asia. Food Microbiology. DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2009.07.002
Poutanen, K., Flander, L., & Katina, K. (2009) Sourdough and cereal fermentation in a nutritional perspective. Food Microbiology. DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2009.07.011
- June 13, 2010
- 06:33 AM
- 978 views
The long road to perennial cereals
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Why are there no perennial grain crops? That’s the provocative question posed by a recent paper in Evolutionary Applications written by three scientists working at The Land Institute. Whose institutional mission, of course, is to breed just this sort of crop, on the assumption that they “could reduce soil erosion while maintaining production of food [...]... Read more »
Van Tassel, D., DeHaan, L., & Cox, T. (2010) Missing domesticated plant forms: can artificial selection fill the gap?. Evolutionary Applications. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00132.x
- September 17, 2010
- 04:26 AM
- 952 views
Cattle’s great adventure
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Evolutionary Anthropology has a nice paper summarizing the history of domestic cattle, based on the latest molecular marker data. Unusually, the authors at least attempt a flowing account of the origin and spread of a domesticated species, and even more unusually actually achieve it in places. Alas, the details of haplogroups and mtDNA vs Y-chromosome [...]... Read more »
Ajmone-Marsan, P., Garcia, J., & Lenstra, J. (2010) On the origin of cattle: How aurochs became cattle and colonized the world. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 19(4), 148-157. DOI: 10.1002/evan.20267
- May 3, 2010
- 02:44 AM
- 941 views
Getting to grips with ecological interactions
by Jeremy in Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Something just in from our occasional contributor Jacob van Etten.
Climate change will shift the limits of the suitable areas of many wild animals and plants, including crop wild relatives. Some species may adapt by gradually moving into areas which resemble their current home area. In other cases, no bridges exist to connect old and new [...]... Read more »
Gilman, S., Urban, M., Tewksbury, J., Gilchrist, G., & Holt, R. (2010) A framework for community interactions under climate change. Trends in Ecology . DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2010.03.002
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