Do you work in a national genebanks? If so, you might want to take a survey on your “molecular characterisation capacity, infrastructure, policy environment, and interest in future DSI collaboration with CGIAR.”
A brief history of gap analysis for crop diversity conservation
Many thanks to long-time friend-of-the-blog Dr Colin Khoury for this latest contribution.
Conservation gap analysis using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools relies on several sources of biological and environmental data, including in situ species occurrences and climatic and other environmental variables used to conduct species distribution modeling, as well as passport data from ex situ collections. While species distribution modeling and associated methods had been in development since at least the 1970s (see Rebelo, 1994 and Booth et al., 2013), the widespread use of these tools was not possible until such biological and environmental data were more easily and widely accessible, for example through GBIF, WorldClim, and Genesys.
Genebank scientists, often in collaboration with academic researchers, began to apply available GIS-based tools to PGRFA conservation around the turn of the century, proceeding to develop new methods, software, and datasets (for early examples, see Guarino, 1995; Greene and Guarino, 1999; Guarino et al., 2002). Global climate datasets were compiled at relatively high spatial resolution (e.g., Hijmans et al., 2005), providing key inputs for species distribution modeling. Current distribution models for plant genetic resources began to be calculated, for example for wild relatives of potatoes and peanuts, while future distributions under climate change also began to be modeled, for example for wild peanuts, potatoes, and cowpeas. Field collecting was informed through these tools, for example for wild clover and wild chile pepper expeditions.
The focus on wild relatives of food and agricultural crops was not haphazard. These species were receiving increasing conservation attention at the time in recognition of their value as genetic resources for crop breeding, and because many wild relatives were known to be threatened in their natural habitats and were underrepresented in ex situ repositories. International conservation targets for crop wild relatives had been set at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (for 2011 to 2020 and again for 2020 to 2030) and in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (for 2015 to 2030). At the same time, species distribution modeling methods had primarily been developed for wild species, i.e. taxa whose distributions are mainly driven by climatic, edaphic, and other environmental factors, rather than human preferences (which are more difficult to model), therefore the application of these methods to crop wild relatives was relatively straightforward and a logical starting point for the agricultural research community.
Programs such as DIVA-GIS and FloraMap were created to make the methods more accessible to researchers and practitioners without extensive GIS experience and computing power. Such efforts continue, for example by CAPFITOGEN.
Through an international genebank initiative called the Global Public Goods Project II, run from 2007-2010, the distributions of the wild relatives of ten CGIAR mandate crops were mapped, with priorities for further collecting for ex situ conservation identified. A major milestone of that project was the publication of a standardized, replicable gap analysis methodology for the ex situ conservation of crop wild relatives, which made use of herbarium and other biodiversity observations acquired through GBIF and other sources, as well as genebank passport data, and which embraced recent advancements in species distribution modeling methods.
Continue reading “A brief history of gap analysis for crop diversity conservation”
Nibbles: Kenyan crops, Omani mangoes, Wheat mixtures, Wagyu origins
- Kenyan farmers are rediscovering indigenous crops.
- Oman discovers it has lots of mango diversity, and moves to conserve it.
- Swedish student discovering varietal mixtures.
- Discover how a locally adapted cattle population in Japan became a globally recognized premium brand by maintaining distinctive genetic and breeding characteristics. Lessons there for all of the above perhaps?
Nibbles: Cayman coconuts, Wild beans, Breeding Bambara, Aussie genebank, UAE law, EBI, Amazonian ag
- The Cayman Islands bets on a genebank of coconut diversity.
- The Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT’s genebank bets on growth cabinets to save picky wild bean.
- IITA bets on stakeholders to build a better Bambara groundnut. And its genebank, presumably.
- The Australian Seed Bank Partnership bets on, well, seeds.
- The UAE bets on a PGRFA law.
- Ethiopia bet on a national genebank 50 years ago.
- People have been betting on the chagra in the Amazon for 4,500 years.
Brainfood: Seeds through time
- Natufian sickle blades (ca. 15,000–11,700 cal. BP) reveal cereal cultivation ca. 4.5 millennia before domestication. Archaeological evidence from ancient sickle blades suggests that people were harvesting cereal seeds thousands of years before domesticated forms emerged, blurring the line between foraging and farming, and offering fresh insight into the long co-evolution of humans and crops.
- Teosinte alleles enhance nitrogen assimilation and seed protein in maize. Wild relatives continue to provide valuable genetic resources for the improvement of crop seeds.
- Modeling seed germination data to meet biodiversity conservation needs in the Mediterranean. Robust germination models can improve both restoration planning and ex situ conservation by predicting when and how seeds are most likely to establish.
- To grow or not to grow: questioning seed dormancy and thermal germination responses along elevational gradients in four plant taxa. Seed dormancy does not always follow predictable patterns across environmental gradients.
- Delayed Seed Germination as a Strategy to Cope With Environmental Stress and Disturbance. Seed dormancy follows a (fairly) predictable pattern when you look at stress and disturbance.
- Reconsidering how to dry orthodox seeds for improved ex situ conservation outcomes. Conventional wisdom about drying orthodox seeds before storage may deserve re-evaluation, and refining drying protocols could enhance long-term viability and strengthen the effectiveness of seed banks.
- Short periods dominate mast seeding across diverse tree species. A broad analysis of mast seeding reveals that many tree species synchronize seed production over relatively short recurring intervals rather than highly irregular cycles.