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The beginnings of agriculture; Crops of west Asia: cereals, oilseeds, pulses, fibres, others; Crops of the new world: cereals, other grains, tubers; Review.
Contributors explore common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture resulting from convergent evolution. During the past 12,000 years, agriculture originated in humans as many as twenty-three times, and during the past 65 million years, agriculture also originated in nonhuman animals at least twenty times and in insects at least fifteen times. It is much more likely that these independent origins represent similar solutions to the challenge of growing food than that they are due purely to chance. This volume seeks to identify common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture that are the results of convergent evolution. The goal is to create a new, synthetic field that characterizes, quantifies, and empirically documents the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that drive both human and nonhuman agriculture. The contributors report on the results of quantitative analyses comparing human and nonhuman agriculture; discuss evolutionary conflicts of interest between and among farmers and cultivars and how they interfere with efficiencies of agricultural symbiosis; describe in detail agriculture in termites, ambrosia beetles, and ants; and consider patterns of evolutionary convergence in different aspects of agriculture, comparing fungal parasites of ant agriculture with fungal parasites of human agriculture, analyzing the effects of agriculture on human anatomy, and tracing the similarities and differences between the evolution of agriculture in humans and in a single, relatively well-studied insect group, fungus-farming ants.
Darwin's Harvest addresses concerns that we are losing the diversity of crop plants that provide food for most of the world. With contributions from evolutionary biologists, geneticists, agronomists, molecular biologists, and anthropologists, this collection discusses how economic development, loss of heirloom varieties and wild ancestors, and modern agricultural techniques have endangered the genetic diversity needed to keep agricultural crops vital and capable of adaptation. Drawing on the most up-to-date data, the contributors review the utilization of molecular techniques to understand crop evolution. They explore current research on various crop plants of both temperate and tropical origin, including maize, sunflower, avocado, sugarcane, and wheat. The chapters in Darwin's Harvest also provide solid background for understanding many recent discoveries concerning the origins of crops and the influence of human migration and farming practices on the genetics of our modern foods.
Harnessing evolution for more sustainable agriculture As human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability. Darwinian Agriculture presents an entirely new approach to these challenges, one that draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection. R. Ford Denison shows how both biotechnology and traditional plant breeding can use Darwinian insights to identify promising routes for crop genetic improvement and avoid costly dead ends. Denison explains why plant traits that have been genetically optimized by individual selection—such as photosynthesis and drought tolerance—are bad candidates for genetic improvement. Traits like plant height and leaf angle, which determine the collective performance of plant communities, offer more room for improvement. Agriculturalists can also benefit from more sophisticated comparisons among natural communities and from the study of wild species in the landscapes where they evolved. Darwinian Agriculture reveals why it is sometimes better to slow or even reverse evolutionary trends when they are inconsistent with our present goals, and how we can glean new ideas from natural selection's marvelous innovations in wild species.
In this major 1993 work, Lloyd Evans provides an integrated view of the domestication, adaptation and improvement of crop plants, bringing together genetic diversity, plant breeding, physiology and aspects of agronomy. Considerations of yield and maximum yield provide continuity throughout the book. Food, feed, fibre, fuel and pharmaceutical crops are all discussed. Cereals, grain legumes and root crops, both temperate and tropical, provide many of the examples, but pasture plants, oilseeds, leafy crops, fruit trees and others are also considered. After the introductory chapter, the increasing significance of crop yields to the world's food supply is highlighted. The next three chapters consider changes to crop plants over the last ten thousand years, including domestication, adaptation and improvement. Aimed at research workers and advanced students in crop physiology and ecology, agronomy and plant breeding, this book also reaches conclusions of relevance to those concerned with developmental policy, agricultural research and management, environmental quality, resource depletion and human history.
An account of the evolution and principles involved in breeding crops grown in the tropics. This book developed from a symposium held in New Delhi in 1970 at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. It begins with a consideration of the history of agriculture. Recent techniques make is possible to set crop plant evolution against the time scale of agricultural development, enabling the rate of evolution to be determined with some precision. Throughout the account the studies stress the range of material and changes and improvements in crops, with special reference to their importance not only in the tropics, but also to world agriculture. This book brings to the notice of geneticists and breeders in western countries the work undertaken in India in elucidating the evolution and recent improvement of crop plants of world wide importance. It is also an authoritative account for students of plant breeding in the tropics taking courses in universities, in institutes and colleges of agriculture who need to have within the covers of one book a comprehensive, yet concise text that clearly sets out the principles involved in the breeding of crops grown in the tropics.
"This beautifully illustrated book reviews scientific and technological information about the world's major food plants and their culinary uses. An introductory chapter discusses nutritional and other fundamental scientific aspects of plant foods. The 100 main chapters deal with a particular species or group of species. All categories of food plants are covered, including cereals, oilseeds, fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, herbs, spices, beverage plants and sources of industrial food extracts. Information is provided on scientific and common names, appearance, history, economic and social importance, food uses (including practical information on storage and preparation), as well as notable curiosities. There are more than 3000 literature citations in the book and the text is complemented by over 250 exquisitely drawn illustrations. Given the current, alarming rise in food costs and increasing risk of hunger in many regions, specialists in diverse fields will find this reference work to be especially useful. As well, those familiar with Dr. Small's books or those with an interest in gardening, cooking and human health in relation to diet will want to own a copy of this book."--Publisher's web site.
Many of the characteristics that distinguish plants from other living organisms can be traced to their bacterial origin early in the history of life. These features-such as a multicellular haploid life stage, prevalent hermaphroditism, self-fertilization, and general dependence on biotic and abiotic vectors for reproduction-stem directly from the plant's ability to obtain energy from the sun. This novel mode of energy capture had far-ranging implications for plant evolution. It not only fueled the tremendous diversification of life on Earth that followed, but also had far-ranging implications for the evolution of photosynthetic microorganisms and eventually for land plants. Understanding the evolutionary processes for the proliferation and diversification of plants requires an appreciation of their unique biological features. While the processes of mutation, selection, genetic drift, and gene flow remain the same for both plants and animals, there are specific characteristics of plants that modify the way their evolution is implemented. Unique traits of plants affect everything from the fate of mutations, through exposure to selection in a haploid life phase, to the distribution of genetic variation within populations, and ultimately the rates and patterns of diversification. This book examines the origins of the unique evolutionary features of plants, as well as their implications for evolutionary processes. Author Mitchell B. Cruzan provides contemporary discussion of subjects including population genetics, phylogeography, phylogenetics, ecological genetics, and genomics. The book fills a need for modern coverage of these topics, all of which are essential to a wide range of advanced courses in plant biology.