Crop wild relatives in Lebanon: mapping the distribution of Poaceae and Fabaceae priority taxa for conservation planning

Abstract

Lebanon is a part of the Fertile Crescent recognized for its agrobiodiversity wealth in terms of both cultivated plants and crop wild relatives (CWR) diversity. Within the context of climate change and its adverse effect on agrobiodiversity, conservation of CWRs in Lebanon is essential to prevent the loss of potentially useful genetic diversity and to facilitate their use in crop breeding. To establish a comprehensive conservation plan for Lebanese CWR belonging to Poaceae and Fabaceae, in this study we prioritized 16 taxa based on their value for world security and local economy, gene pool (primary and secondary) and genome type (A, B and D for Triticum genera). Georeferenced occurrence data of populations belonging to the prioritized taxa list were retrieved from different sources and imported into QGIS to visualize by mapping their distribution in-situ and ex-situ on the Lebanese territory, highlighting sites with highest density per genus and sites characterised by the highest taxa richness. The analysis allowed to identify Lebanese areas that still need further surveying actions (mainly the south-west parts of the country) and showed that priority taxa had different distribution pattern independently from genus. Bekaa and Baalbak governorates were evaluated to include sites represented with highest taxa richness, which makes them preliminary contenders to be included within in-situ conservation actions. This study provided a foundation for further research into the conservation planning of crop wild relatives belonging to Poaceae and Fabaceae in Lebanon by identifying areas with highest taxa richness.

A first assessment of community values, rules and knowledge of Mount Hermon, Lebanon: key perspectives towards biocultural conservation

“…Among these species, there are 18 narrow endemics and some crop wild relatives (CWR) of grains and legumes that represent high value genetic resource for global food security and local economy and livelihood. A recent study by Sayde et al (2023) reported high localization and abundance of Triticum species (T. dicoccoides, T. boeoticum, T. timopheevii subsp. Armeniacum), Hordeum spontaneum, and Lens culinaris subsp.…”

“…barley, wheat) and legumes (e.g. chickpeas, lentils) as well as crop landraces characterised by high adaptive capacities to local environmental and climatic conditions (Sayde et al, 2023). Grapevines, fruit trees (e.g.…”

Review of Crop Wild Relative Conservation and Use in West Asia and North Africa

“…The priority taxa from the CWR inventory then may be elaborated with additional data to aid conservation implementation [30]. There has been no comprehensive CWR inventory produced for WANA, but individual inventories for West Asia (fertile crescent) of 220 CWR taxa and North Africa of 112 CWR taxa have been published ( [32,33], respectively); there are also national CWR inventories for Cyprus [34], Iran [35], Israel [36], Jordan [37], Lebanon [38], Turkey [39], Tunisia [40], and for the Arabian Peninsula [41], as well as for WANA priority cereals [42] and legumes [43]. Combining the two regional lists for West Asia [32] and North Africa [33], together with those global priority CWRs found in WANA [9], we produced a WANA priority list of 488 CWR taxa (Supplementary Table S1 [44]).…”