Browsing by Subject "Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Complementary ecosystem services from multiple land uses highlight the importance of tropical mosaic landscapes
(2023) Raveloaritiana, Estelle; Wurz, Annemarie; Osen, Kristina; Soazafy, Marie Rolande; Grass, Ingo; Martin, Dominic Andreas; Bemamy, Claudine; Ranarijaona, Hery Lisy Tiana; Borgerson, Cortni; Kreft, Holger; Hölscher, Dirk; Rakouth, Bakolimalala; Tscharntke, Teja
Tropical agricultural landscapes often consist of a mosaic of different land uses, yet little is known about the spectrum of ecosystem service bundles and materials they provide to rural households. We interviewed 320 households on the different benefits received from prevalent land-use types in north-eastern Madagascar (old-growth forests, forest fragments, vanilla agroforests, woody fallows, herbaceous fallows, and rice paddies) in terms of ecosystem services and plant uses. Old-growth forests and forest fragments were reported as important for regulating services (e.g. water regulation), whilst fallow lands and vanilla agroforests as important for provisioning services (food, medicine, fodder). Households reported the usage of 285 plant species (56% non-endemics) and collected plants from woody fallows for varying purposes, whilst plants from forest fragments, predominantly endemics, were used for construction and weaving. Multiple land-use types are thus complementary for providing ecosystem services, with fallow lands being particularly important. Hence, balancing societal needs and conservation goals should be based on diversified and comprehensive land management.
The diversity of quinoa morphological traits and seed metabolic composition
(2022) Tabatabaei, Iman; Alseekh, Saleh; Shahid, Mohammad; Leniak, Ewa; Wagner, Mateusz; Mahmoudi, Henda; Thushar, Sumitha; Fernie, Alisdair R.; Murphy, Kevin M.; Schmöckel, Sandra M.; Tester, Mark; Mueller-Roeber, Bernd; Skirycz, Aleksandra; Balazadeh, Salma
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is an herbaceous annual crop of the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae). It is increasingly cultivated for its nutritious grains, which are rich in protein and essential amino acids, lipids, and minerals. Quinoa exhibits a high tolerance towards various abiotic stresses including drought and salinity, which supports its agricultural cultivation under climate change conditions. The use of quinoa grains is compromised by anti-nutritional saponins, a terpenoid class of secondary metabolites deposited in the seed coat; their removal before consumption requires extensive washing, an economically and environmentally unfavorable process; or their accumulation can be reduced through breeding. In this study, we analyzed the seed metabolomes, including amino acids, fatty acids, and saponins, from 471 quinoa cultivars, including two related species, by liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry. Additionally, we determined a large number of agronomic traits including biomass, flowering time, and seed yield. The results revealed considerable diversity between genotypes and provide a knowledge base for future breeding or genome editing of quinoa.