Agave cocui
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_cocui
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licor_de_cocuy
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Model of an insect outbreak 
Steven Strogatz
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Zona arqueológica Guachimontones vista desde el aire, en Jalisco, México.
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via GIPHY

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Les semences libres de Nicolas Supiot, le paysan boulanger
 

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"And so I go to the woods. As I go in under the trees, dependably, almost at once, and by nothing I do, things fall into place. I enter an order that does not exist outside, in the human spaces" 

 

Wendell Berry

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Vascular bundles of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus)
200x(objective lens magnification)
Photo: David Maitland

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The hidden beauty of the hindwing
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Direct and indirect effects of urban gardening on aboveground and belowground diversity influencing soil multifunctionality      
Tresch et al., 2019

Urban gardens are popular green spaces that have the potential to provide essential ecosystem services, support human well-being, and at the same time foster biodiversity in cities. We investigated the impact of gardening activities on five soil functions and the relationship between plant (600 spp.) and soil fauna (earthworms: 18 spp., springtails: 39 spp.) in 85 urban gardens (170 sites) across the city of Zurich (Switzerland). Our results suggest that high plant diversity in gardens had a positive effect on soil fauna and soil multifunctionality, and that garden management intensity decreased plant diversity. Indices of biological activity in soil, such as organic and microbial carbon and bacterial abundance, showed a direct positive effect on soil multifunctionality. Soil moisture and disturbance, driven by watering and tilling, were the driving forces structuring plant and soil fauna communities. Plant indicator values proved useful to assess soil fauna community structure, even in anthropogenic plant assemblages. We conclude that to enhance soil functions, gardeners should increase plant diversity, and lower management intensity. Soil protective management practices, such as applying compost, mulch or avoiding soil tilling, should be included in urban green space planning to improve urban biodiversity and nature’s contribution to people.

 Expected positive relationships are given in black and negative ones in red, grey arrows represent both positive and negative effects. We expected that annual vegetables (arrows 1a) will negatively influence plant and soil fauna as well as soil multifunctionality compared to perennial grass sites, while perennial flowers (arrows 1b) will show positive effects. Management intensity (arrows 2) is expected to negatively affect plant diversity and soil fauna as well as soil multifunctionality. Higher plant diversity (arrows 3) is hypothesised to have a positive effect on soil fauna and soil multifunctionality. Soil fauna diversity and biomass (arrows 4a & 4b) are also expected to have a positive effect on soil multifunctionality. Urbanisation (arrows 5) might have a positive or negative effect on soil fauna and soil multifunctionality.

https://go.nature.com/2JlaO9M
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Oaxacan Green Corn
Photo: @jm_sabo

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"Todo el que disfruta cree que lo que importa del árbol es el fruto, cuando en realidad es la semilla.
He aquí la diferencia entre los que piensan y los que solo disfrutan."

Friedrich Nietzsche.
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Plant domestication disrupts biodiversity effects across major crop types
Chacón‐Labella et al., 2019.

Plant diversity fosters productivity in natural ecosystems. Biodiversity effects might increase agricultural yields at no cost in additional inputs. However, the effects of diversity on crop assemblages are inconsistent, probably because crops and wild plants differ in a range of traits relevant to plant–plant interactions. We tested whether domestication has changed the potential of crop mixtures to over‐yield by comparing the performance and traits of major crop species and those of their wild progenitors under varying levels of diversity. We found stronger biodiversity effects in mixtures of wild progenitors, due to larger selection effects. Variation in selection effects was partly explained by within‐mixture differences in leaf size. Our results indicate that domestication might disrupt the ability of crops to benefit from diverse neighbourhoods via reduced trait variance. These results highlight potential limitations of current crop mixtures to over‐yield and the potential of breeding to re‐establish variance and increase mixture performance.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.13336 
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Changes in diet following the rise of farming in Europe and Asia during the Neolithic period resulted in humans retaining overbites into adulthood, which led in turn to language diversification.

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https://bit.ly/2RPmy7a
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Elicia Edijanto