Modelling the potential ecological niche of domesticated buckwheat in China: archaeological evidence, environmental constraints and climate change

Abstract

We present a species distribution model (SDM) of Fagopyrum esculentum (buckwheat) in China using present distribution data and estimates for the past based on palaeoclimatic reconstructions. Our model estimates the potential area suitable for buckwheat cultivation over the last 8,000 years, with northeast China consistently showing the highest suitability, providing insights on the discrepancy between the location of the earliest archaeobotanical records in the area and its origins in southwest China based on biogeographic and genetic data. The model suggests little to no variation over time in the spatial extent of the potential area suitable for buckwheat cultivation. In the northern parts of China, the limits of the ecological niche largely fall within the borders of the study area, while to the west it never extends into the main Tibetan plateau, explaining the lack of fossil evidence from Central Asia. In the southwest, the niche overlaps with the borders of modern China, which supports this direction as a viable route of westward dispersal. The comparison between the prediction from the model and sites with archaeobotanical evidence for Fagopyrum indicates that the environmental niche it occupied remained stable over time. This may contrast with a dispersal pattern characterised by continuous adaptations to new environments facilitated by human activity, which may be suggested for other major and minor crops.

New insights into the origin of buckwheat cultivation in southwestern China from pollen data

“…There is a consensus that buckwheat originated in China and thereafter became a pan‐Eurasian crop (Fig. S1), but where in China domestication took place is still debated (Ohnishi, 1995; Zhao et al ., 2007; Cheng & Jiang, 2011; Weisskopf & Fuller, 2014; Tang et al ., 2016; Hunt et al ., 2018; Wu & Huang, 2018; Krzyzanska et al ., 2022). Archaeological and palynological records suggest a longer history of buckwheat cultivation in northern China than southwestern China, but this is not in accordance with phylogenetic evidence (e.g.…”

“…Unfortunately, the age models of these two loess sections were constructed based on stratigraphic correlation, lacking a reliable age control (Cheng & Jiang, 2011). Recently, Krzyzanska et al (2022) used a species distribution model of F. esculentum in China to estimate the potential area suitable for buckwheat cultivation over the last 8000 yr, consistently showing northeast China to have highest suitability.…”

“…Recently, Krzyzanska et al . (2022) used a species distribution model of F. esculentum in China to estimate the potential area suitable for buckwheat cultivation over the last 8000 yr, consistently showing northeast China to have highest suitability.…”

pastclim 1.2: an R package to easily access and use paleoclimatic reconstructions

“…The availability of such data paved the way for a large number of research questions among many disciplines, i.e. ecology (Miller et al 2021b, VanBuren and Jarzyna 2022), paleoecology (Leonardi et al 2018, 2022, Somveille et al 2020, Chen et al 2021, Schap et al 2021, Thorup et al 2021, Medina‐Castañeda et al 2022, Reade et al 2022), conservation (Beyer and Manica 2021), population genetics (Maisano Delser et al 2021, Miller et al 2021a, Warmuth et al 2021), archaeology (Betti et al 2020, Racimo et al 2020, Beyer et al 2021, Krzyzanska et al 2021, Bradshaw et al 2022, Cerasoni et al 2022, Park and Marwick 2022, Timbrell et al 2022), macroevolution of different taxa, including the genus Homo (Saupe et al 2014, Will et al 2021, Fordham et al 2022, Timmermann et al 2022, Troyer et al 2022), anthropology (Leonardi et al 2017, Padilla‐Iglesias et al 2022) and linguistics (Beyer et al 2019).…”

pastclim: an R package to easily access and use paleoclimatic reconstructions

“…e . ecology (Miller et al 2021a, b), paleoecology (Leonardi et al 2018, 2020, Somveille et al 2020, Chen et al 2021, Schap et al 2021, Thorup et al 2021), conservation (Beyer and Manica 2021), population genetics (Maisano Delser et al 2021), archaeology (Racimo et al 2020, Betti et al 2020, Beyer et al 2021, Krzyzanska et al 2021, Park and Marwick 2022, Cerasoni et al 2022, Timbrell et al 2022), the evolution of the genus Homo (Will et al 2021, Timmermann et al 2022), anthropology (Leonardi et al 2017, Padilla-Iglesias et al 2021) and linguistics (Beyer et al 2019).…”