The necessity of cold storage for mycoinsecticides poses a logistical challenge in tropical Africa, where maintaining consistent refrigeration is a major obstacle. To investigate alternative preservation methods, our study evaluates conidial-based freeze-dried formulations of Beauveria bassiana (IMI 389521), Metarhizium acridum (IMI 330189), and mycelial-based freeze-dried formulations of Hirsutella thompsonii (IMI 327488 and IMI 391722). Propagules were cryoprotected with lactose, mannitol, and raffinose, encapsulated, and freeze-dried in plastic and glass vials. Bioformulations in glass vials were cryoprotected with mannitol only. Viability (CFU/g each day) of bioformulations, following 16-weeks-storage, and their virulence (at 1 x 10(7) conidia mL(-1) in six days) against key pests of maize and cassava in Africa (larger grain borer, variegated grasshopper and cassava green mite) were determined under ambient laboratory conditions in Ghana. Our results show that non-freeze-dried conidia of B. bassiana and M. acridum had significantly higher viability and efficacy than freeze-dried versions, when stored under non-refrigerated conditions (averaging 27.7 degrees C, 78.8% RH). Freeze-dried H. thompsonii mycelia were neither viable nor virulent against cassava green mite. Freeze-dried B. bassiana and M. acridum in plastic vials remained viable for 12 weeks, while in glass vials they were viable for seven weeks. Freeze-dried B. bassiana in both plastic and glass vials caused 38-43% mortality in larger grain borer, and M. acridum caused 45-82% mortality in variegated grasshopper. Further, conidia cryoprotected with lactose had significantly higher viability and mortality than raffinose and mannitol. Our research contributes to mycoinsecticide development, particularly in the context of storage and application challenges in tropical climates.

In 2018, the University of Birmingham, UK, hosted a weekend of events for the Association for Environmental Archaeology (AEA)'s spring conference 'Pests of Society'. The event was organised in collaboration with Historic England - the publicly-funded 'Arms-Length Body' with statutory responsibility for the historic environment in England. During the course of the one day conference and workshop the following day, multiple aspects were covered of how pests have interacted, and continue to interact, with humans and their day-to-day activities, as well as their presence in the wider landscape. This paper outlines and describes the meeting, introducing the range of topics covered, and summarises the papers that have been published in the resulting special issue.

This paper describes the recovery and identification of oothecae of the oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis L.) from deposits associated with an Early Romano-British bakery oven from Roman Londinium (now modern-day London). The ecology, behaviour and past archaeological history of this species are presented. The implications of finding this species for our understanding of the movement and importation of stored products and other materials by the Roman Army and citizenry is outlined.

Land-use change plays an important role in shaping plant and insect diversity over long time timescales. Great Britain provides an ideal case study to investigate patterns of long-term vegetation and insect diversity change owing to the existence of spatially and temporally extensive environmental archives (lake sediments, peatlands, and archaeological sites) and a long history of landscape transformation through agrarian change. The trends identified in past environmental datasets allow the impacts of land-use change on plant and insect diversity trends to be investigated alongside exploration of the emergence of ecological novelty. Using fossil pollen, insect (beetle), archaeodemographic, archaeobotanical and modern landscape datasets covering Britain, similarities are identified between insect diversity and pollen sample evenness indicating that vegetation heterogeneity influences insect diversity. Changing land use captured by archaeobotanical data is significantly correlated with pollen diversity demonstrating the role of human activity in shaping past diversity trends with shifts towards ecosystem novelty identified in the form of non-analogue pollen taxa assemblages (unique species combinations). Modern landscapes with higher agricultural suitability are less likely to have pollen analogues beyond the last 1000 years, whilst those in areas less suited to agriculture and on more variable topography are more likely to have analogues older than 1000 years. This signifies the role of agriculture in the creation of novel ecosystems. Ecological assemblages characteristic of earlier periods of the Holocene may persist in areas less affected by agriculture. The last 200 years has witnessed major shifts in novelty in a low number of pollen sites suggesting that novel ecosystems emerged over a longer time period resulting from the cumulative impacts of land-use change.

The onset of prehistoric farming brought unprecedented changes to landscapes and their biodiversity. Past biodiversity patterns are broadly understood for different parts of Europe, and demonstrate trajectories that have been linked to prehistoric and historic demographic transitions, and associated land-use practices. To our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to directly link evidence of agricultural practice from the archaeological record to biodiversity patterns. Records of fossil pollen are used to estimate plant and landscape diversity patterns, and novel approaches are employed to analyse 1194 harmonised archaeobotanical samples (plant macrofossil remains) spanning the prehistoric and Roman periods, from southern England. We demonstrate changes in the use of crops and gathered edible plants and non-linear trends in cultivation practices. Whilst, overall, cereal production is characterised by ever larger and extensive regimes, different trajectories are evident for most of early prehistory, the Middle Iron Age and the Late Roman period. Comparisons with the Shannon diversity of fossil pollen records from the same region suggest a positive relationship between developing agricultural regimes and landscape scale biodiversity during the prehistoric period. The Roman period represents a tipping point in the relationship between expanding agriculture and pollen diversity, with declining pollen diversity evident in the records from the region.

The first microbial culture collection was established in 1890, and subsequently, over the course of the twentieth century, the number of culture collections grew substantially. One such collection was the CABI-IMI Genetic Resources Collection, informally initiated at the origins of the Commonwealth Mycological Institute in 1920 and established as a UK National Collection in 1947. Its holdings reflect the activities of CABI in agriculture and the environment. Like many collections, it was originally established as a taxonomic reference resource. Over the years, deposits have included strains isolated from disease outbreaks in major crops from all parts of the world. Recent developments in genome sequencing technology and bioinformatic analysis have opened up the potential to characterise historic strains to shed more insights on their biology and evolution. In this paper we describe how the resources held within the CABI-IMI culture collection have helped track the emergence and divergence of Fusarium xylarioides, the coffee wilt pathogen, with a specific focus on the evolution of pathogenicity. Such studies illustrate the value held within the world’s culture collections—their importance in underpinning science and developing our understanding and evolution of plant diseases as well as how the impact of disease can be mitigated in response to climate change, in order to increase yields and feed the world’s burgeoning population.

CABI has been involved in identifying and combatting emerging fungal disease of plants for over 100 years and in doing so has built a wealth of resources to support farmers and practitioners in reducing crop loss. CABI does not achieve this alone – being an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organisation, its 49 Member Countries guide and influence its work, which a network of global partners helps deliver. This work is becoming more relevant in light of increasing threats from climate change, invasive species and pathogens becoming resistant to biocides. Here, we focus on how climate change is influencing disease occurrence and how CABI’s work and resources can help in the battle to manage emerging and spreading diseases. CABI’s culture collection maintains living and active strains of pathogens and biocontrol agents for use as reference materials, its diagnostic advisory service and network of partners helps identify problems and provide solutions and CABI’s information resources underpin it all.

CABI has worked in agriculture and the environment for over 100 years. During this time, the CABI living culture collection has accumulated 30,000 strains of fungi and bacteria, representing reference strains, production strains and microorganisms for interventions to improve agricultural yields and reduce food loss. The CABI collection is just one example of the 800 culture collections registered with the World Data Centre for Microorganisms which together hold almost 3.2 million strains. This chapter demonstrates the use and output of culture collections that support work in mycology, agriculture and the environment. Knowledge not only of individual microorganisms but also of whole microbial communities and their interactions is essential to provide a better understanding of how to harness them to improve crop yields and facilitate interventions, e.g., biocontrol of pests, diseases and invasive species. This chapter explores how utilisation of microbial resources can contribute to sustainable futures and deliver innovation in agriculture, food security, healthcare, the environment, education and the bio-based economy.

为了保证公平和公正地分享利用遗传资源所产生的惠益,研究和开发中使用的遗传资源必须按照《名古屋议定书》中规定的获取与惠益分享制度进行收集和利用.截至2020年7月,该议定书的缔约方中已有67个国家制定了相关立法,另有57个国家正在制定法律,行政或政策措施.传统生物防治通常是从有害生物的原产地或自然分布区引进天敌资源,用于可持续防治外来入侵有害生物.本文基于履约现状与挑战,分析了获取与惠益分享制度对于传统生物防治研究的影响,并以国际应用生物科学中心为例介绍了获取与惠益分享政策和最佳做法以及履约实践与对策,以期为我国从事传统生物防治研究的机构和科研人员遵守并执行《名古屋议定书》提供参考.

Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem functioning, habitat recovery following disturbance and resilience to global environmental change. Long‐term ecological records can be used to explore biodiversity patterns and trends over centennial to multi‐millennial time‐scales across broad regions. Fossil pollen grains preserved in sediment over millennia reflect palynological richness and diversity, which relates to changes in landscape diversity. Other long‐term environmental data, such as fossil insects, palaeoclimate and archaeologically inferred palaeodemographic (population) data, hold potential to address questions about the drivers and consequences of diversity change when combined with fossil pollen records. This study tests a model of Holocene palynological diversity change through a synthesis of pollen and insect records from across the British Isles along with palaeodemographic trends and palaeoclimate records. We demonstrate relationships between human population change, insect faunal group turnover, palynological diversity and climate trends through the Holocene. Notable increases in population at the start of the British Neolithic (~6,000 calendar years before present [ bp ]) and Bronze Age (~4,200 bp ) coincided with the loss of forests, increased agricultural activity and changes in insect faunal groups to species associated with human land use. Pollen diversity and evenness increased, most notably since the Bronze Age, as landscapes became more open and heterogeneous. However, regionally distinctive patterns are also evident within the context of these broad‐scale trends. Palynological diversity is correlated with population while diversity and population are correlated with some climate datasets during certain time periods (e.g. Greenland temperature in the mid‐late Holocene). Synthesis . This study has demonstrated that early human societies contributed to shaping palynological diversity patterns over millennia within the context of broader climatic influences upon vegetation. The connections between population and palynological diversity become increasingly significant in the later Holocene, implying intensifying impacts of human activity, which may override climatic effects. Patterns of palynological diversity trends are regionally variable and do not always follow expected trajectories. To fully understand the long‐term drivers of biodiversity change on regionally relevant ecological and management scales, future research needs to focus on amalgamating diverse data types, along with multi‐community efforts to harmonise data across broad regions.

OBJECTIVE:This study provides a baseline of pathological and sub-pathological changes in the lower-limb bones of a semi-feral herd of domestic cattle. The purpose is to refine an existing method for identifying the use of cattle for traction using zooarchaeological evidence.METHODS:A published recording system for identifying draught cattle was applied to a sample of 15 individuals from Chillingham Park, Northumberland. Correlations were explored between individual pathological index values, the scores obtained for individual pathological/sub-pathological changes, and three biological variables: age, sex and body size.RESULTS:Pathological index values in the Chillingham cattle were low. Positive correlations between individual pathological index values and age, sex and body size were identified. Broadening of the distal metacarpal, proximal and distal exostoses in the metatarsal, distal exostoses of the proximal phalanx, and proximal lipping and exostoses of the distal phalanx, were strongly correlated with age.CONCLUSIONS:Pathological index scores demonstrate that adaptive remodeling of the autopodia is low in a free-ranging population of cattle, supporting the view that more pronounced changes provide useful identifiers of traction use. Application of modified pathological index formulae to nine archaeological sites from England indicated that cattle were only intensively used for traction in the Roman and later medieval periods.SIGNIFICANCE:This study refines the methods used to identify traction in the archaeological record through the consideration of cows and a wider range of ages than has been considered previously.LIMITATIONS:Only 15 individuals from the Chillingham herd were available for analysis.SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:The refined formulae should be applied to additional archaeological datasets from different regions and time periods to explore the changing exploitation of cattle for traction.

Should cesspits be excavated and recorded in detail? In the UK, cesspits often are considered 'mundane' and frequently overlooked during excavation or only half-heartedly recorded. This paper explores the biography of cesspits-their construction, use, reuse, and closure/abandonment, as well as their archaeological investigation and interpretation. What does a cesspit look like? How might we better recognise cesspits archaeologically? By exploring modern NGO guidance and high-quality archaeological studies of cesspits and latrines, we can begin to understand something of the common biography of these features. Comparison between the approach to the excavation/recording of cesspits in the USA with that of the UK also may inform our collective approach to these features at any archaeological site. Perhaps our own assumptions and approaches to the archaeological interpretation of these features may be hindering our understanding of their significance as important records of status and societal behaviour? This paper will conclude by exploring the interpretation of cesspits from two different chronological periods in the UK, outlining entirely different approaches to quite similar data.

It is critical that storage of the living reference strains, on which the names and properties are based and the DNA sequenced to assign a name (the reference genetic resources), are preserved optimally to retain stability. The fact that less than 1% of microbial diversity can be grown sets enormous challenges for repositories (microbial domain biological resource centres or mBRCs). It is most often the case that it is an axenic culture of the reference genetic resource that is preserved but, for those organisms that cannot be grown or where molecular techniques are used to identify the organism, DNA should be stored. This task increases further when the microbiome is being studied, and environmental samples from whole communities are examined; mBRCs need to address how these can be preserved too. This chapter focuses on property retention, selecting the appropriate techniques for longterm survival and stability of characters. It covers the operations of mBRCs and the most appropriate technologies and mechanisms for stability testing and quality assurance. It addresses the preservation of microbial strains of the wide range of archaeal, bacterial (including cyanobacterial), yeast and fungal type and reference strains.

Societal Impact StatementPlant and fungal specimens provide the auditable evidence that a particular organism occurred at a particular place, and at a particular point in time, verifying past occurrence and distribution. They also document the aspects of human exploration and culture. Collectively specimens form a global asset with significant potential for new uses to help address societal and environmental challenges. Collections also serve as a platform to engage and educate a broad range of stakeholders from the academic to the public, strengthening engagement and understanding of plant and fungal diversity—the basis of life on Earth.SummaryWe provide a global review of the current state of plant and fungal collections including herbaria and fungaria, botanic gardens, fungal culture collections, and biobanks. The review focuses on the numbers of collections, major taxonomic group and species level coverage, geographical representation and the extent to which the data from collections are digitally accessible. We identify the major gaps in these collections and in digital data. We also consider what collection types need to be further developed to support research, such as environmental DNA and cryopreservation of desiccation‐sensitive seeds. Around 31% of vascular plant species are represented in botanic gardens, and 17% of known fungal species are held in culture collections, both these living collections showing a bias toward northern temperate taxa. Only 21% of preserved collections are available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) with Asia, central and north Africa and Amazonia being relatively under‐represented. Supporting long‐term collection facilities in biodiverse areas should be considered by governmental and international aid agencies, in addition to short‐term project funding. Institutions should consider how best to speed up digitization of collections and to disseminate all data via aggregators such as GBIF, which will greatly facilitate use, research, and community curation to improve quality. There needs to be greater alignment between biodiversity informatics initiatives and standards to allow more comprehensive analysis of collections data and to facilitate linkage of extended information, facilitating broader use. Much can be achieved with greater coordination through existing initiatives and strengthening relationships with users.

Well-managed genetic resources and associated metadata are essential to underpin research addressing the challenges to food security, healthcare, climate change, biodiversity, environment, education and our bio-based economy. Culture collections have supported microbiology research for over 100 years, whether they are collections belonging to individual scientists or institutional repositories. The 790 collections registered with the World Data Centre for Microorganisms (WDCM) together hold over three million strains representing a wide range of microbial diversity. This review provides an overview of the uses and outputs of collections that support work in mycology, agriculture and the environment. Further, it focusses on the advantages of coordinating efforts and establishes recommendations to improve resource provisions for research and the development of the necessary infrastructure. The CABI living resource collection provides an example that holds over 28,000 strains of fungi from 100 years of research in mycology. In the modern era, microbial interventions and solutions require knowledge not only of those microorganisms that can be grown and preserved axenically but also whole microbial communities: i.e. ‘microbiomes’. Current technologies enable us to access this latter, hidden resource, thereby facilitating a better understanding of how to harness and manipulate microbial communities to improve crop yields and allow successful interventions such as biocontrol of pests, diseases and invasive species. The WDCM Analyzer of Bio-resource Citations reports that 79,224 strains from 131 collections from 50 countries have been cited in 145,133 papers published in 50,307 journals from January, 1953 until April, 2020. These organisms have a multitude of uses, for example as sources of antibiotics, therapeutic drugs and other active agents. They have been applied widely including in the biodegradation, bioremediation, biotransformation and biotreatment of wastes. Further uses include interventions in agriculture for soil and plant health or biological control of pests and diseases. All of the above may be achieved by individual institutions but, by working together, collections can form a critical mass to focus on key global issues and can achieve much more. Mechanisms are suggested for coordinating collections in order to deliver a more comprehensive support system in the advancement of science and innovation.

The timing and mechanisms for the develpment of synanthropy for insects is under-explored worldwide; however, substantial archaeoentomological datasets are required to explore this issue in detail. In the British Isles, 50 years of research has generated such a dataset, which we have compiled for this paper. It consists of beetle (Coleoptera) faunas from 55 archaeological sites, comprising 85,829 individuals; out of which 22,670 individuals, representing 128 taxa, were classed as semi- or fully-synanthropic (human-dependent). The data were analysed in terms of presence/absence of different synanthropic taxa; as well as the relative proportions of a range of synanthropic ‘groupings’ for each archaeological period, type of deposit and type of archaeological site. We argue that there are distinct waves of the development or introduction of synanthropes in the British Isles. This initially consisted of a limited group of taxa, derived from the natural environment during the Mesolithic and Neolithic. A second wave of taxa associated with intensive stock raising, pasture and fodder production occurs in the Late Bronze Age/Iron Age. Finally, a range of strongly synanthropic species, including grain pests, were introduced into the British Isles by the Romans as a result of large-scale trade and the development of urban life. Further areas of research, particularly internationally, are outlined.