Best of 2016: Our Annual Report

2016 was a great year for communication: we held a workshop on GRSciColl, we hosted three months of webinars on a wide range of topics, and we held a symposium on Food Security. The communities we developed around these main activities and our online outreach platforms engaged with us at every turn and we couldn’t have had such a successful year without you! 

Food security scientists talk collections, interdisciplinary research

Fig.1. Faith Bartz moderates the environmental stressors and benefits panel on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016. Participants included Muni Muniappan, Virginia Tech; Stephanie Yarwood, University of Maryland; Edna Makule, Nelson Mandela Africa Institute for Science and Technology; Maxine Levin, USDA-NCRS; and John Dickie, Kew Gardens. (Credit: Tricia Fulks Kelley)

BELTSVILLE, Md. -- Some of the world’s top researchers in food security met at the USDA National Agricultural Library from Sept. 19 to 21 to discuss scientific collections’ role in the research area.

Scientific Collections International, or SciColl, a global consortium devoted to promoting the use and impact of object-based scientific collections across disciplines, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture hosted the three-day event. The symposium allowed researchers from across disciplines to talk about the ever-increasing demand on food and how collections-based research can help in the challenges of feeding billions.

Monday Morning Coffee Break: September 26

(Credit: Tricia Fulks Kelley) 

#foodsecurity #scicollfood #research #multidisciplinary #collections #USDA #SciColl #photos

The answers are hidden in history

Kristen Gremillion

“Somewhere in human history we seemed to have switched to a need to increase yields of crops,” said Kristen Gremillion, paleoethnobotanist and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University.

Through fieldwork and the study of museum collections, Gremillion documents just that: the domestication of plants. The work - advanced by Bruce Smith, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution - allows researchers to look at patterns of variation and plant origins and determine how human behavior affected what was grown. Results come from the study of archaeological materials and ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis.

Climate change and phenology

Fig.1. David Inouye studies phenology and climate change’s effect on pollinators, such as bees, hummingbirds and flies. (Credit: David Inouye)

When David Inouye looks out the window of his Colorado home, he’s looking at the mountains. He’s traded in the D.C. suburbs for this view, which also happens to be his office.

The professor emeritus of the University of Maryland has worked at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory throughout his career, focusing on phenology and climate change’s effect on pollinators. Inouye specifically studies hummingbirds, bumblebees and flies. He has collaborated on other projects studying butterflies and solitary bees. As a graduate student in the 1970s, Inouye began to study how the timing and abundance of flowering of plants changes from day to day, year to year. With 30 plots to study during growing season and gathering data from 120 different species, the study has been ongoing.

Food security workshop registration now open

We are pleased to invite you to register for our symposium, Stressors and Drivers of Food Security: Evidence from Scientific Collections. The symposium will be hosted by the US Department of Agriculture at the National Agriculture Library in Beltsville, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., Monday to Wednesday, 19-21 September 2016.

Monday Morning Coffee Break: July 11

(Credit: pawpaw67/flickr/cc) 

#agroecology #foodsecurity #environmentalchange

Save the Date: Food Security Symposium

We are excited to announce the symposium “Stressors and Drivers of Food Security: Evidence from Scientific Collections,” which will bring together researchers and experts on scientific collections across disciplines to address issues regarding food security. This symposium will be held September 19 to 21 at the National Agriculture Library in Beltsville, Md., and will be hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Scientific Collections International.

In the News: NSF Funding Back on Track

Fig.1. Research on migration, disease, and agriculture depend on a sound collections infrastructure
 (Credit left to right: Joi Ito/2008 pic. cropped, Paul Fürst/1656, Marie Hale/2010)

A critically important source of funding for collections in the United States has been reinstated. Though the program is still under evaluation, this money will go towards the preservation of specimens and infrastructure. This week in the news, we read about this program, as well as research projects underway around the world that depend on collections to further understand human disease, migration, and agriculture.

A Brief History Camels (And Humans)

Fig.1. Dromedaries in Israel (Credit: Wilson, 2011)

For the past 3,000 years, single-humped camels, known as dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius), have provided an important source of food and transport to desert communities. The origin of the domesticated dromedary, however, remains relatively unknown. A recent article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals some clues as to where and when humans started to depend upon these animals.

Seeds of Scientific Progress

Fig.1. This Chinese seed drill (left) and Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill (right) were both drawn by animals
(Credit: Chinese Seed Drill, Tien Kung Kai Wu/1637, Tull Seed Drill, Jethro Tull/1731)

Editor’s Note: Our Food Security Symposium has been postponed until September 2016. Please email us at scicoll@si.edu with any questions or join our mailing-list for routine updates on the new symposium. 

Around 1800, the world's population reached one billion people. In less than 50 years from today, that number is projected to reach 9.7 billion people. Although this rapid increase in population size can largely  be attributed to health, sanitation, and farming innovations in the 20th century, it has roots in the Industrial Revolution.

Millet and the Agricultural Revolution

Fig.1. Professor Martin Jones with millet in north China
(Credit: Martin Jones)

Editor’s Note: Our Food Security Symposium has been postponed until September 2016. Please email us at scicoll@si.edu with any questions or join our mailing-list for routine updates on the new symposium. 

Millet’s Long History

Recent research suggests that common millet (Panicum miliaceum) - often used as birdseed today - may have bridged the gap between nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures and agrarian societies in Neolithic Eurasia, holding possible lessons for current food security challenges.

Wild Plants and the Future of Crops

Fig.1. Members of CIAT’s Genetic Resources Program in the minus 20℃
gene bank (Credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT, 2010)

According to a recent study in the journal Nature Plants, around 95 percent of wild relatives of agricultural crops are insufficiently safeguarded in gene banks around the world. These crop wild relatives (CWR) are closely related to domesticated plants and have become increasingly important in efforts to protect crops against threats like drought, pests, and disease.

Monday Morning Coffee Break: March 7

(Credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg) 

#foodsecurity #climatechange #environmentalchange #climatemodel #data

The Botanist and the Digital Age

Fig.1. George Washington Carver
(Credit: Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1906)

Last week, 25 specimens of fungi collected by the famed botanist and inventor George Washington Carver were discovered in the Wisconsin State Herbarium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born into slavery around 1864, Carver became one of the most prominent African-American scientists and is now well known for his research with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans.

In the News: From Peru to Outer Space

Fig.1. Illustration of a plant growth chamber on Mars (Credit: NASA, 2015)

Scientists from NASA have teamed up with the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru to grow potatoes in Mars-like conditions for the benefit of possible manned-missions to our neighboring planet. This experiment - perhaps inspired by Mark Watney of The Martian - is just another exciting piece of news in agriculture and food security this month.

From ancient Scandinavia to outer space, collections are pushing the boundaries of our agricultural understanding. They reveal the history of food security and offer a future for agriculture in a world that must feed 7.4 billion people.

In the News: Return to the Wild Crops

Fig.1. Wild turkeys in Oklahoma (Credit: Larry Smith via Flickr, 2015)

For this Thanksgiving, researchers are turning to wild animal and crop relatives to improve biodiversity. From smartphones to frozen seeds, read more about how new technology will preserve agriculture in a warming world: 

Be Thankful for Pumpkins

(Credit: Ginny via Flickr, 2008)

As families around the United States begin their Thanksgiving feast, they should be particularly grateful for the pumpkin. According to a study published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, this beloved squash survived extinction only through domestication by humans thousands of years ago.

Monday Morning Coffee Break: Sept. 28

(Credit: CropTrust) 

#Svalbard #seeds #seedbank #doomsday #foodsecurity