BackgroundDactylis glomerata (orchardgrass or cocksfoot) is a forage crop of agronomic importance comprising high phenotypic plasticity and variability. Although the genus Dactylis has been studied quite well within the past century, little is known about the genetic diversity and population patterns of natural populations from geographically distinct grassland regions in Europe. The objectives of this study were to test the ploidy level of 59 natural and semi-natural populations of D. glomerata, to investigate genetic diversity, differentiation patterns within and among the three geographic regions, and to evaluate selected populations for their value as genetic resources.ResultsAmong 1861 plants from 20 Swiss, 20 Bulgarian and 19 Norwegian populations of D. glomerata, exclusively tetraploid individuals were identified based on 29 SSR markers. The average expected heterozygosity (HE,C) ranged from 0.44 to 0.59 and was highest in the Norwegian region. The total number of rare alleles was high, accounting for 59.9% of the amplified alleles. 80.82% of the investigated individuals could be assigned to their respective geographic region based on allele frequencies. Average genetic distances were low despite large geographic distances and ranged from D = 0.09 to 0.29 among populations.ConclusionsAll three case study regions revealed high genetic variability of tetraploid D. glomerata within selected populations and numerous rare and localized alleles which were geographically unique. The large, permanent grassland patches in Bulgaria provided a high genetic diversity, while fragmented, semi-natural grassland in the Norwegian region provided a high amount of rare, localized alleles, which have to be considered in conservation and breeding strategies. Therefore, the selected grassland populations investigated conserve a large pool of genetic resources and provide valuable sources for forage crop breeding programs.

No abstract

Last, L., Arndorfer, M., Bal?zs, K., Dennis, P., Dyman, T., Fjellstad, W., Friedel, J. K., Herzog, F., Jeanneret, P., Luscher, G., Moreno, G., Kwikiriza, N., Gomiero, T., Paoletti, M., Pointereau, P., Sarthou, J-P., Stoyanova, S., Wolfrum, S., K?lliker, R. (2014). Indicators for the on-farm assessment of crop cultivar and livestock breed diversity: a survey-based participatory approach. Biodiversity and Conservation, 23 (12), 3051-3071Agrobiodiversity plays a fundamental role in guaranteeing food security. However, still little is known about the diversity within crop and livestock species: the genetic diversity. In this paper we present a set of indicators of crop accession and breed diversity for different farm types at farm-level, which may potentially supply a useful tool to assess and monitor farming system agrobiodiversity in a feasible and relatively affordable way. A generic questionnaire was developed to capture the information on crops and livestock in 12 European case study regions and in Uganda by 203 on-farm interviews. Through a participatory approach, which involved a number of stakeholders, eight potential indicators were selected and tested. Five of them are recommended as potentially useful indicators for agrobiodiversity monitoring per farm: (1) crop-species richness (up to 16 crop species), (2) crop-cultivar diversity (up to 15 crop cultivars, 1?2 on average), (3) type of crop accessions (landraces accounted for 3 % of all crop cultivars in Europe, 31 % in Uganda), (4) livestock-species diversity (up to 5 livestock species), and (5) breed diversity (up to five cattle and eight sheep breeds, on average 1?2).We demonstrated that the selected indicators are able to detect differences between farms, regions and dominant farm types. Given the present rate of agrobiodiversity loss and the dramatic effects that this may have on food production and food security, extensive monitoring is urgent. A consistent survey of crop cultivars and livestock breeds on-farm will detect losses and help to improve strategies for the management and conservation of on-farm genetic resources.authorsversionPeer reviewe

Manuscript reference: JLCA-D-16-00169 This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1278-yPurpose: Inclusion of the impact of land use on biodiversity within the context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is essential to assess the effects of human activities on the environment. Numerous models have been applied, but validations that use actual data collected in the field are scarce. Methods: The expert system SALCA-BD (Swiss Agricultural LCA ? Biodiversity), assigns coefficients for land use class suitability and impact of agricultural practices on species diversity at the field and farm scale. We used data on land use classes and agricultural practices from 132 farms located in eight European regions to complete the life cycle inventory. SALCA-BD species diversity scores were calculated for individual plots, aggregated to the farm scale and compared to field records of arable crop flora, grassland flora, spiders and wild bees. Results: Overall, species diversity scores from SALCA-BD were positively related to the observed species richness from field survey data. The extent of the relationship diminished from arable crop flora and grassland flora to spiders and to wild bees, and from the field to farm scale. Conclusions: Improvements of land use class suitability coefficients for semi-natural land use classes and region specific conditions are recommended. The validation of LCA biodiversity assessment tools with data from field survey is a necessary step to facilitate improvement and increase credibility of such tools.Peer reviewe

International audienceTo evaluate progress on political biodiversity objectives, biodiversity monitoring provides information on whether intended results are being achieved. Despite scientific proof that monitoring and evaluation increase the (cost) efficiency of policy measures, cost estimates for monitoring schemes are seldom available, hampering their inclusion in policy programme budgets. Empirical data collected from 12 case studies across Europe were used in a power analysis to estimate the number of farms that would need to be sampled per major farm type to detect changes in species richness over time for four taxa (vascular plants, earthworms, spiders and bees). A sampling design was developed to allocate spatially, across Europe, the farms that should be sampled. Cost estimates are provided for nine monitoring scenarios with differing robustness for detecting temporal changes in species numbers. These cost estimates are compared with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget (2014-2020) to determine the budgetallocation required for the proposed farmland biodiversity monitoring. Results show that the bee indicator requires the highest number of farms to be sampled and the vascular plant indicator the lowest. The costs for the nine farmland biodiversity monitoring scenarios corresponded to 001%-074% of the total CAP budget and to 004%-248% of the CAP budget specifically allocated to environmental targets.Synthesis and applications. The results of the cost scenarios demonstrate that, based on the taxa and methods used in this study, a Europe-wide farmland biodiversity monitoring scheme would require a modest share of the Common Agricultural Policy budget. The monitoring scenarios are flexible and can be adapted or complemented with alternate data collection options (e.g. at national scale or voluntary efforts), data mobilization, data integration or modelling efforts. Editor's Choic