Aaron Ansarov
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Ankole-Watusi
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Tugo Cheng
https://www.tugocheng.com/coastalgeometries
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If we knew exactly the laws of nature and the situation of the universe at the initial moment, we could predict exactly the situation of that same universe at a succeeding moment. But even if it were the case that the natural laws had no longer any secret for us, we could still only know the initial situation approximately. If that enabled us to predict the succeeding situation with the same approximation, that is all we require, and we should say that the phenomenon had been predicted, that it is governed by laws. But it is not always so; it may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the fi nal phenomena . A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes impossible.

Henri Poincaré - 1903

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Jupiter

Portraits of Rescued Farm Animals (Sharon Lee Hart)

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In Sharon Lee Hart’s Portraits of Rescued Farm Animals, we see chickens, goats, cows, pigs, and other “livestock” animals in tender, humanizing portraits. The creatures in Hart’s pictures were rescued from lives of abuse and neglect on farms and photographed where they are now cared for at farm animal sanctuaries.

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https://sharonleehart.com/section/125167-Portraits-of-Rescued-Farm-Animals.html
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Picasso
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Patria, mi madre agraria, 
mi amor inigualado,
mi destino vital, 
¡mi única causa!

Roque Dalton 
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 Old fruit pictures: ‏ @pomological

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Multiproxy evidence highlights a complex evolutionary legacy of maize in South America    
Logan Kistler et al.  
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Domesticated maize evolved from wild teosinte under human influences in Mexico beginning around 9000 years before the present (yr B.P.), traversed Central America by ~7500 yr B.P., and spread into South America by ~6500 yr B.P. Landrace and archaeological maize genomes from South America suggest that the ancestral population to South American maize was brought out of the domestication center in Mexico and became isolated from the wild teosinte gene pool before traits of domesticated maize were fixed. Deeply structured lineages then evolved within South America out of this partially domesticated progenitor population. Genomic, linguistic, archaeological, and paleoecological data suggest that the southwestern Amazon was a secondary improvement center for partially domesticated maize. Multiple waves of human-mediated dispersal are responsible for the diversity and biogeography of modern South American maize.
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http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6420/1309

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-scientists-overhaul-corn-domestication-story.html 
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Jochen Schroeder

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To escape the removal by the human hand some weeds followed a smart strategy. These weeds mimicked the appearance of the crop plants. A process known as Vavilovian Mimicry. 
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Spatial structuring of soil microbial communities in commercial apple orchards 
Greg Deakin

Characterising spatial microbial community structure is important to understand and explain the consequences of continuous plantation of one crop species on the performance of subsequent crops, especially where this leads to reduced growth vigour and crop yield. We investigated the spatial structure, specifically distance-decay of similarity, of soil bacterial and fungal communities in two long-established orchards with contrasting agronomic characteristics. A spatially explicit sampling strategy was used to collect soil from under recently grubbed rows of apple trees and under the grassed aisles. Amplicon-based metabarcoding technology was used to characterise the soil microbial communities. The results suggested that (1) most of the differences in soil microbial community structure were due to large-scale differences (i.e. between orchards), (2) within-orchard, small-scale (1–5 m) spatial variability was also present, but spatial relationships in microbial community structure differed between orchards and were not predictable, and (3) vegetation type (i.e. trees or grass and their associated management) can significantly alter the structure of soil microbial communities, affecting a large proportion of microbial groups. The discontinuous nature of soil microbial community structure in the tree stations and neighbouring grass aisles within an orchard illustrate the importance of vegetation type and allied weed and nutrient management on soil microbial community structure.

Unweighted (A: fungi, C: bacteria) and weighted (B: fungi, D: bacteria) UniFrac distance (β diversity indices - between samples calculated from a neighbour joining tree of phylogenetic distance between OTUs), illustrating between-orchard difference is much greater (darker in the heatmap) than within-orchard differences. The heatmaps have top left to bottom right diagonal symmetry, and samples have been ordered on both axis by the orchard and their physical location in each orchard.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929139317308442#!

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Early spread of agriculture in Europe and the Middle East (map end 3800 BCE)

 https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/9wp2ht/spread_of_agriculture_in_europe_and_the_middle/
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Repeated observation may lead to future expectations, but only theory can lead to understanding.

Vandermeer, J. Perfecto, I. 2018. Ecological Complexity and Agroecology. Routledge.

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Ecological Intensification: Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice     

David Kleijn et al.

Ecological intensification aims to harness ecosystem services to sustain agricultural production while minimising adverse effects on the environment.

Ecological intensification is championed by scientists as a nature-based alternative to high-input agriculture but meets with little interest from growers.

Scientific evidence underlying ecological intensification is often unconvincing to growers, as it is based on small-scale studies of ecological processes unlinked from agricultural production.

Grower interest can be enhanced by evidence of the agronomic and economic benefits most relevant to farmers and measured at the scales of operation of farm enterprises.

In addition to concrete benefits, concerns of the general public about adverse effects of industrial farming can promote adoption of ecological intensification, both directly and indirectly, by enhancing political will to use regulatory instruments.

There is worldwide concern about the environmental costs of conventional intensification of agriculture. Growing evidence suggests that ecological intensification of mainstream farming can safeguard food production, with accompanying environmental benefits; however, the approach is rarely adopted by farmers. Our review of the evidence for replacing external inputs with ecosystem services shows that scientists tend to focus on processes (e.g., pollination) rather than outcomes (e.g., profits), and express benefits at spatio-temporal scales that are not always relevant to farmers. This results in mismatches in perceived benefits of ecological intensification between scientists and farmers, which hinders its uptake. We provide recommendations for overcoming these mismatches and highlight important additional factors driving uptake of nature-based management practices, such as social acceptability of farming. 

https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(18)30273-8?rss=yes&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Cubism? 
No: canola fields of Adelaide, Australia

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https://bit.ly/2E4IfeP
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Current understanding of maize and rice defense against insect herbivores
Jinfeng Qi et al.

Plants have sophisticated defense systems to fend off insect herbivores. How plants defend against herbivores in dicotyledonous plants, such as Arabidopsis and tobacco, have been relatively well studied, yet little is known about the defense responses in monocotyledons. Here, we review the current understanding of rice (Oryza sativa) and maize (Zea mays) defense against insects. In rice and maize, elicitors derived from insect herbivore oral secretions or oviposition fluids activate phytohormone signaling, and transcriptomic changes mediated mainly by transcription factors lead to accumulation of defense-related secondary metabolites. Direct defenses, such as trypsin protein inhibitors in rice and benzoxazinoids in maize, have anti-digestive or toxic effects on insect herbivores. Herbivory-induced plant volatiles, such as terpenes, are indirect defenses, which attract the natural enemies of herbivores. R gene-mediated defenses against herbivores are also discussed.

 A working model of defense responses in an herbivore-attacked plant. (A) Herbivore-derived elicitors are perceived by unidentified receptors on the plasma membranes, triggering rapid activation of MAPKs followed by biosynthesis of phytohormones, JA, JA-Ile, and ethylene. After several steps of signaling transduction, transcription factors (MYC2 and ERFs, for instance) regulate the accumulation of non-volatile secondary metabolites (such as TPIs in rice and BXs in maize), which function as direct defenses against herbivores. (B) Herbivory-induced plant volatiles recruit natural enemies above ground (such as parasitic wasps) and below ground (entomopathogenic nematodes, for instance) to indirectly defend plants against herbivores. Solid lines indicate reported pathways in monocots, dashed lines indicate unconfirmed pathways inferred from findings in dicots.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468265918300696

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Population genomic analyses of the chocolate tree, Theobroma cacao L., provide insights into its domestication process

Omar E. Cornejo et al.

Domestication has had a strong impact on the development of modern societies. We sequenced 200 genomes of the chocolate plant Theobroma cacao L. to show for the first time to our knowledge that a single population, the Criollo population, underwent strong domestication ~3600 years ago (95% CI: 2481–13,806 years ago). We also show that during the process of domestication, there was strong selection for genes involved in the metabolism of the colored protectants anthocyanins and the stimulant theobromine, as well as disease resistance genes. Our analyses show that domesticated populations of T. cacao (Criollo) maintain a higher proportion of high-frequency deleterious mutations. We also show for the first time the negative consequences of the increased accumulation of deleterious mutations during domestication on the fitness of individuals (significant reduction in kilograms of beans per hectare per year as Criollo ancestry increases, as estimated from a GLM, P = 0.000425).

Population genetic structure in T. cacao. a The ten main genetic clusters can be recovered (A.1), although further structure (11 clusters) seems to be meaningful given that a considerable number of admixed individuals present the ancestry from a subset of Amelonado ancestry (A. 2). Color bars on top of the admixed individuals show our suggested grouping for the hybrids. b Map of Central and South America showing the median coordinate locations for the origin of samples from each population sampled in this work (with the exception of Admixed). c MDS showing a gradient of differentiation form the West to the East side of the Amazon (PC2) and a major separation of the Criollo group that corresponds to the Mesoamerican domesticated group (PC1). d Significant decay of genetic diversity (π) for the species along PC2 is supportive of the origin of the species being in the western side of the Amazon Basin (Criollo is excluded, model: π ∼ group + ε, p < 2E-16, r2 = 0.19). e All ten population genetic groups that have been described for the species are highly differentiated, with Criollo presenting a larger average FST when compared against all the other groups

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https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-018-0168-6

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EN LO MICRO Y EN LO MACRO. SOBRE LA IMPORTANCIA DE LAS INTERACCIONES EN LA AGROECOLOGÍA

EN LO MICRO Y EN LO MACRO. ... by on Scribd

Bucles intransitivos: ejemplo de control de plaga en agroecosistemas de café (John Vandermeer)

El Conuco Hiwi: Reivindicación a partir de evidencia agroecológica

El Conuco Hiwi: Reivindicac... by on Scribd

Las mujeres

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"Ya los recolectores primitivos conocían tanto el cuidado de los determinados árboles frutales en sus regiones de caza como también la propiedad privada de los mismos, en especial en los lugares en que las plantas alimenticias se encontraban en grandes cantidades. Estas plantas constituían, por así decir, pequeños huertos silvestres. Pero todavía había que dar un paso muy grande para pasar del cuidado de las plantas silvestres a un cultivo consciente, que significaba el paso de la economía apropiadora a la economía productiva, y que para la evolución de las culturas tendría consecuencias mucho más graves y decisivas que, por ejemplo, la introducción del la metalurgia.

El paso a la cultura agrícola debió haberse realizado de tal manera que las mujeres, con el fin de facilitar su terea de recoger alimentos vegetales y asegurar el éxito en esta empresa, ya no cosechaban el total de los frutos que se hallaban en una región rica  en estas plantas nutritivas, sino que las dejaban ahí partes de raíces, tubérculos y retoños. De esta manera podían estar seguras de obtener una rica cosecha cuando les tocara visitar nuevamente dicha región. El conocimiento de cómo las partes abandonadas producen nuevas plantas tuvo que adquirirse precisamente en estos constantes retornos a los antiguos campamentos después de un determinado tiempo de vagar por otros lugares. Generalmente se tiraba la basura y todos los desperdicios directamente en el campamento, de modo que –especialmente después de haber permanecido mucho tiempo en un mismo lugar o de haber acampado en el repetidas veces- se formaban a menudo gigantescos montículos de basura los cuales, naturalmente, proporcionaban un excelente abono y un buen lugar donde podrían crecer las partes de los tubérculos y los retoños que se habían tirado. En el momento en que pudieron valorarse estos conocimientos ya no fue tan difícil dar el paso a la agricultura, es decir, a la siembra de plantas deseadas en lugares favorables para fundar una aldea; esto se hacía, por ejemplo, llevando partes de tubérculos desde regiones lejanas hasta las cercanías de los campamentos preferidos o llevando retoños (plátanos, por ejemplo) o frutos de arboles con el mismo fin al campamento.

Este paso significó un enorme progreso en relación al aseguramiento de la vida, principalmente en las regiones boscosas del trópico, donde la caza cuesta mayor trabajo y tiene menos éxito que en las regiones esteparias. Ahora no solo se había ampliado y asegurado la base de la alimentación, sino que la vida de las mujeres se había aligerado considerablemente ahorrándoles tiempo y energías; pues hasta este instante habían  tenido que dedicar principalmente a la búsqueda de comestibles el tiempo libre que les dejaba el arreglo de los campamentos y la preparación de los alimentos, a lo que se añadía –aparte del esfuerzo que significaba la recolección de frutos, etc.- el tener que cargar  a sus hijos pequeños; desde luego, el trabajo era todavía más pesado para las mujeres embarazadas.

A pesar de las ventajas, para nosotros tan obvias, del cultivo de la tierra, no hay que sobrevalorar el ritmo de su desarrollo.  Desde luego que hubo mujeres recolectoras que en distintas épocas y regiones plantaban vegetales independientemente unas de otras. Pero esto sucedía de una manera muy limitada y solo individualmente. Antes de que una invención o un método nuevos puedan abrirse paso y ser aceptados por la comunidad  tienen que pasar por un proceso de criba. Esto es, el inventor, que siempre sobresale espiritualmente del promedio de su comunidad, necesita encontrar seguidores que comprendan en primer término sus pensamientos, que puedan intuir su utilidad y que además estén dispuestos a aportar la fuerza de voluntad necesaria para cambiar la tradición y aceptar las nuevas ideas. Además debe existir la posibilidad de comunicar la innovación a un circulo más amplio y de legarla a las generaciones futuras. Para todo esto, a las culturas recolectoras propiamente dichas les están trazados límites muy estrechos: por una parte, la escasa población de las unidades étnicas que viven notablemente aisladas constituye un obstáculo para  la comunicación de nuevos inventos en el espacio y en el tiempo, y por la otra lo es la conocida mentalidad conservadora de los pueblos recolectores, que suelen aferrarse con mucha tenacidad a su estructura cultural vigorosamente caracterizada a través de milenios de adaptación especializada al medio ambiente. Una alteración de la economía no significa sino una conmoción del equilibrio endoétnico mantenido estable durante tanto tiempo (véase pp. 40 ss). (El mejor ejemplo lo representa los pigmeos Bambuti, que desde hace por lo menos siglos, pero probablemente milenios, viven en simbiosis con agricultores de altura elevada. Sin dudas, han conocido la utilidad del cultivo de la tierra y lo han sabido aprovechar a través del comercio de trueque o el robo; pero aun hoy no quieren adoptarlo ni siquiera en la forma para ellos tan sencilla de la plantación de plátano que tanto aprecian. Los intentos ocasionales de convencerlos proporcionan resultados muy raquíticos, cuando no fracasaron por completo). Pero debemos tener en cuenta que los hombres de la fase recolectora son cazadores apasionados, para quienes el vagar independiente y constante es una necesidad vital que no quieren abandonar. Por lo tanto, se requirieron personalidades femeninas de mucha voluntad para abrirle paso al cultivo de la tierra y, con esto, a una forma de vida sedentaria."

Kunz Dittmer. 1960. Etnología General. Formas y evolución de la cultura. Fondo de Cultura Económica, pp. 177-179.

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Evidence for mid-Holocene rice domestication in the Americas
Lautaro Hilbert et al.

The development of agriculture is one of humankind’s most pivotal achievements. Questions about plant domestication and the origins of agriculture have engaged scholars for well over a century, with implications for understanding its legacy on global subsistence strategies, plant distribution, population health and the global methane budget. Rice is one of the most important crops to be domesticated globally, with both Asia (Oryza sativa L.) and Africa (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) discussed as primary centres of domestication. However, until now the pre-Columbian domestication of rice in the Americas has not been documented. Here we document the domestication of Oryza sp. wild rice by the mid-Holocene residents of the Monte Castelo shell mound starting at approximately 4,000 cal. yr bp, evidenced by increasingly larger rice husk phytoliths. Our data provide evidence for the domestication of wild rice in a region of the Amazon that was also probably the cradle of domestication of other major crops such as cassava (Manihot esculenta), peanut (Arachis hypogaea) and chilli pepper (Capsicum sp.). These results underline the role of wetlands as prime habitats for plant domestication worldwide.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0322-4

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0362-9

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Chrysina resplendens
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Useful wild plants are surprisingly poorly protected

" A new way of measuring plant conservation shows that a wide range of wild plants used for food, medicine, shelter, fuel, livestock forage and other valuable purposes are at risk...

...The Useful Plants Indicator scores almost 7,000 useful wild plants from 220 countries on a scale of 1-100, with 100 meaningfully protected. Any plant rated 75 or higher is “sufficiently conserved.” Low, medium and high priority for conservation is reflected by scores of 74-50, 49-25 and 24-0, respectively. The indicator equally weighs in situ plant conservation – in protected areas like national parks – and ex-situ conservation, which covers plants safeguarded in gene banks, botanical gardens and other conservation repositories."

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https://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/wild-coffee-plants-christmas-trees-and-chocolates-tree-are-surprisingly-poorly-protected/
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a6J8QgJvcG4S0z10K9PwmPm-1EsdVJ_T/view?fbclid=IwAR1c6wIkC4Q5QbLSQYuCZT-W5FqJSmgPbenxatYd9b50OEE-exW5XkXpuKY
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Pandanus tectorius