Environmental News Network - World’s Largest Database of Weeds Lets Scientists Peer Into the Past, and Future, of Global Agriculture

Details: By University of Sheffield; 26.Jan

A new database of weeds that can help scientists understand how traditional agricultural systems were managed throughout history, could also provide insights into how global trends like the climate crisis could affect the resilience of our modern day food systems.

Julie Swatson

A new database of weeds that can help scientists understand how traditional agricultural systems were managed throughout history, could also provide insights into how global trends like the climate crisis could affect the resilience of our modern day food systems.

The database is the culmination of 30 years of collaborative research from archaeologists and ecologists working at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford. It catalogues nearly 1000 species of weeds growing in traditional agricultural regimes in Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.

The open access resource, created and published by academics continuing the research project through the Oxford University Research Archive, offers researchers worldwide the opportunity to compare archaeobotanical data with ’traditional’ farming systems.

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World’s Largest Database of Weeds Lets Scientists Peer Into the Past, and Future, of Global Agriculture