Caprine dental microwear reveals livestock management and exploitation of landscape during the Middle and Late Bronze Age of the Balearic Islands (ca. 1500–850 cal. BC)

In the last few decades, bioarchaeological studies have grown exponentially on the Balearic Islands. In general, animal husbandry based on domestic triad and a Mediterranean macchia landscape is well-attested during the prehistory of this archipelago. Despite providing meaningful data about dietary patterns and livestock practices, dental microwear analyses on animal teeth have not been previously applied to the research of the Balearic Islands. This study presents the results of dental microwear analyses from 107 caprine teeth from seven archaeological sites from the Balearics dated from the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The results suggest that sheep and goats were predominantly browsers, having a shrubby-predominant diet, with the exception of Cala Blanca caprines (Menorca) that were mixed feeders with a tendency towards a grazering diet. Dental microwear results also suggest that caprines from two archaeological sites located on the coast did not feed near to the settlements, thus suggesting livestock movement. The combination of these results with the archaeobotanical information available from some sites has allowed a better understanding about livestock management and its impact on the transformation of the prehistoric landscape of the Balearic Islands.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The work of Lua Valenzuela-Suau have been supported by a postdoctoral contract financed by the Ministerio de Universidades, under the Pla de Recuperació, Transformació i Resiliència, and financed by the European Union (NextGenerationEU), with the participation of the Universitat de les Illes Balears. This work is part of the knowledge transfer of the R&D Project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation “Movilidad y conectividad de las comunidades prehistóricas en el Mediterráneo Occidental durante la prehistoria reciente: El caso de las Islas Baleares” (PID2019-108692GB) of the ArqueoUIB Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands. This work has also been sponsored by the project “La construcció dels paisatges culturals durant l'Edat del Bronze a les Illes Balears” (PRD2018/19) from the Comunitat Autònoma de les Illes Balears through the Direcció General de Política Universitaria i Recerca with funds from the Tourist Stay Tax Law ITS 2017-006

Field development of oil palms (elaeis guineensis JACQ.) originating from cryopreserved stabilized polyembryonic cultures

In this paper, the long term observation of plants originating from control and cryopreserved stabilized polyembryonic cultures (SPCs) of six elite oil palm clones was carried out. Survival of plantlets in the nursery was monitored, then a series of vegetative and floral characteristics of over 440 palms were studied for up to 12 years after field transfer in Cote d'Ivoire. The six clones tested showed an average recovery of 34% after freezing in liquid nitrogen. The average survival in the nursery of plantlets originating from pretreated and dehydrated and from cryopreserved SPCs was higher than that of control SPCs. Palm trees originating from control SPCs were found to flower earlier than those originating from pretreated and dehydrated and from cryopreserved SPCs. This delay in flowering disappeared progressively and all palms had flowered 3 years after planting regardless of the SPC treatment. Abnormal palms were observed in one clone only. With this clone, the percentage of abnormal palms originating from cryopreserved SPCs was significantly lower (5%) than that measured on palms originating from control SPCs (29%)

Biotechnologies du palmier dattier

Le palmier dattier est une plante d'intérêt écologique, économique et social majeur pour de nombreux pays des zones arides qui comptent parmi les plus pauvres du globe. En effet, en créant au milieu du désert un microclimat favorable au développement de cultures sous-jacentes, le palmier dattier constitue l'axe principal de l'agriculture dans les régions désertiques et représente la principale ressource vivrière et financière des populations oasiennes. Pour traiter les problématiques liées à la culture du palmier au Maghreb, en Afrique et en Europe du Sud, 60 chercheurs font ici un bilan de leurs recherches sur l'évaluation, la conservation et la valorisation des ressources génétiques du palmier dattier, ouvrant ainsi de nouvelles perspectives pluridisciplinaires. L'ouvrage présente les dernières avancées scientifiques sur la production à grande échelle, les variations somaclonales et l'amélioration génétique. Enfin, il pose les bases de nouveaux projets internationaux sur la conservation des ressources génétiques du palmier dattier, un enjeu important pour développer l'agriculture oasienne