The Lubin Files

Orchard losses 'threaten species'

Apart from the variety of fruit species in traditional orchards they also offer homes to many insects and birds. The National Trust in Britain and Natural England are launching a campaign to reverse the continuing loss of these unique environments. Perhaps damson cobbler will become a standard dish in English pubs.

Animal Biodiversity and Emerging Diseases Prediction and Prevention

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences devoted a whole issue to the relation between Biodiversity and Emerging Diseases.

Almost 400 pages are dedicated to themes like the impact of global factors on wildlife population, the extinction of species by disease outbreaks, the degradation of the ecosystems, the illegal wildlife trade, the zoonosis factors in tropical areas, the evolution of pathogens and many others.

“Two interactive configurations must be taken into account: on one hand, worldwide growth of human populations and, on the other hand, biodiversity, a great part of which is the source of past, present, and probably future diseases” (from the Introduction to the issue).

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences is provided to FAO staff via Library subscription.

Agrobiodiversity and climate change: an online discussion

I only just read about this online discussion group in the Agrobiodiversity Grapevine weblog.  The group started on 17 November, 2008.

Supported by Bioversity and the Christensen Fund, the Climate Change Project aims to gather and make known information on the use of agrobiodiversity by communities facing climate change.

Through brainstorming and discussion groups, the project aims to identify and address gaps in the current state of knowledge on the interplay between climate change and biodiversity.

Keeping track of biodiversity

The Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool was envisioned to help businesses incorporate biodiversity considerations into their project decision-making strategies. The IBAT pools data on biodiversity resources from sources like the IUCN and UNEP, and provides a means access it all in one place.

The tool will be unveiled at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona later this month.

Read more about it here from the Economist

Black stem rust and global wheat stocks

There is an interesting post on the Grist blog about black stem rust and how it is likely to affect global wheat stocks.

Looks like biodiversity is the answer...

Small farms are rich in biodiversity

Small farms are incredibly rich in biodiversity, according to a study by Devra Jarvis et al. (Bioversity International) that was published in this month's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study measures the "richness, evenness and divergence" of agricultural crops grown on family farms across 5 continents.  It finds that each farm studied grew at least more than one crop variety, and that some farms grew as many as 60 varieties simultaneously.

Read A global perspective of the richness and evenness of traditional crop-variety diversity maintained by farming communities (PNAS 24 March, 2008 - advance electronic publication)

Improved avian biodiversity could help prevent spread of West Nile Virus

This study was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy: Biological Sciences (Volume 273, Number 1582).

Abstract: The emergence of several high profile infectious diseases in recent years has focused attention on our need to understand the ecological factors contributing to the spread of infectious diseases. West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease that was first detected in the United States in 1999. The factors accounting for variation in the prevalence of WNV are poorly understood, but recent ideas suggesting links between high biodiversity and reduced vector-borne disease risk may help account for distribution patterns of this disease.

Since wild birds are the primary reservoir hosts for WNV, we tested associations between passerine (Passeriform) bird diversity, non-passerine (all other orders) bird diversity and virus infection rates in mosquitoes and humans to examine the extent to which bird diversity is associated with WNV infection risk. We found that non-passerine species richness (number of non-passerine species) was significantly negatively correlated with both mosquito and human infection rates, whereas there was no significant association between passerine species richness and any measure of infection risk. Our findings suggest that non-passerine diversity may play a role in dampening WNV amplification rates in mosquitoes, minimizing human disease risk.

Ark of Taste

The Ark of Taste is an initiative of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity.

The Ark is a database-- a metaphorical recipient of gastronomic products that are threatened by industrial standardization, hygiene laws, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental degradation.

Products in the ark range from the Italian Valchiavenna goat to the American Navajo-Churro sheep, to a unique variety of Greek fava beans grown only on the island of Santorini. All are endangered products that have real economic viability and commercial potential.

Ecosystems Services and Agriculture

The journal Ecological Economics has a special section entitled Ecosystem Services and Agriculture in its 15 December 2007 issue.  It looks at the diverse benefits which accompany the cultivation of agricultural ecosystms and how they could be evaluated.  Ecological Economics is available online to FAO staff through the library subscription.

The Value of Biodiversity - La Valeur de la Biodiversité

Nature & Faune, published by the FAO Regional Office for Africa, has brought out a special issue on the value of biodiversity.  This issue contains news from Africa and news of FAO activities, together with a special feature entitled "Biodiversity and Climate Change".  The journal comes out in both French and English and is available online.