To meet the ambitious objectives of biodiversity and climate conventions, countries and the international community require clarity on how these objectives can be operationalized spatially, and multiple targets be pursued concurrently 1 . To support governments and political conventions, spatial guidance is needed to identify which areas should be managed for conservation to generate the greatest synergies between biodiversity and nature's contribution to people (NCP). Here we present results from a joint optimization that maximizes improvements in species conservation status, carbon retention and water provisioning and rank terrestrial conservation priorities globally. We found that, selecting the top-ranked 30% (respectively 50%) of areas would conserve 62.4% (86.8%) of the estimated total carbon stock and 67.8% (90.7%) of all clean water provisioning, in addition to improving the conservation status for 69.7% (83.8%) of all species considered. If priority was given to biodiversity only, managing 30% of optimally located land area for conservation may be sufficient to improve the conservation status of 86.3% of plant and vertebrate species on Earth. Our results provide a global baseline on where land could be managed for conservation. We discuss how such a spatial prioritisation framework can support the implementation of the biodiversity and climate conventions.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Climate change is expected to severely impact cultivated plants and consequently human livelihoods 1-3 , especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 4-6. Increasing agricultural plant diversity (agrobiodiversity) could overcome this global challenge 7-9 given more information on the climatic tolerance of crops and their wild relatives. Using >200,000 worldwide occurrence records for 29 major crops and 778 of their wild relative species, we assess for each crop how future climatic conditions are expected to change in SSA and whether populations of the same 2 crop from other continents, wild relatives around the world, or other crops from SSA are better adapted to expected future climatic conditions in the region. We show that climate conditions not currently experienced by the 29 crops in SSA are predicted to become widespread, increasing production insecurity, especially for yams. However, crops such as potato, squash and finger millet may be maintained by using wild relatives or non-African crop populations with climatic niches more suited to future conditions. Crop insecurity increases over time and rising greenhouse gas emissions, but the potential for using agrobiodiversity for resilience is less altered. Climate change will therefore affect Sub-Saharan agriculture but agrobiodiversity can provide resilient solutions in the short-and medium-term. Main Text: Global climate has changed rapidly over recent decades, and temperature and precipitation regimes are predicted to shift significantly in the near future 10. Future impacts on both biodiversity and human livelihoods are significant and primarily negative 2,4,11. By affecting plant productivity, and thus industrial and food crop yield, climate change is expected to impact global human economy and subsistence 1,2. Its tropical location, socioeconomic, demographic, policy, and farming characteristics place sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at major risk 5,6. Assessing which sub-Saharan crops, regions and populations will be most affected, as well as potential future adaptations is therefore essential. Agrobiodiversity and breeding programs represent an important adaptive strategy for agriculture in a changing world 8,12. Currently cultivated crops may exhibit reduced genetic variation compared to that found in wild relative populations, which may limit their resilience and adaptation to future environmental conditions 13. Crop improvement through selection for
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Phytosterols are primary plant metabolites that have fundamental structural and regulatory functions. They are also essential nutrients for phytophagous insects, including pollinators, that cannot synthesize sterols. Despite the well-described composition and diversity in vegetative plant tissues, few studies have examined phytosterol diversity in pollen. We quantified 25 pollen phytosterols in 122 plant species (105 genera, 51 families) to determine their composition and diversity across plant taxa. We searched literature and databases for plant phylogeny, environmental conditions, and pollinator guilds of the species to examine the relationships with pollen sterols. 24-methylenecholesterol, sitosterol and isofucosterol were the most common and abundant pollen sterols. We found phylogenetic clustering of twelve individual sterols, total sterol content and sterol diversity, and of sterol groupings that reflect their underlying biosynthesis pathway (C-24 alkylation, ring B desaturation). Plants originating in tropical-like climates (higher mean annual temperature, lower temperature seasonality, higher precipitation in wettest quarter) were more likely to record higher pollen sterol content. However, pollen sterol composition and content showed no clear relationship with pollinator guilds. Our study is the first to show that pollen sterol diversity is phylogenetically clustered and that pollen sterol content may adapt to environmental conditions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.