An international team of scientists have completed what they claim is the ‘largest review ever conducted’ looking at agricultural crop diversity. The results are in: we are seeing ‘enormous’ diversity loss, with implications for future food security.
Fifteen scientists from six countries have come together to look at the loss of crop diversity – including its causes and its full extent. Their review of hundreds of other studies published over [.]
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IMAGE: Palmyra Palm (Borassus aethiopum) near Ziguinchor, Casamance, Senegal. In the new article in BioScience, Sean Hoban and colleagues discuss the urgent need for monitoring of the genetic diversity within. view more
Credit: M. Patrick Griffith / Montgomery Botanical Center
A hidden planetary crisis has long been neglected that is as serious as the disappearance of species and degradation of habitats. Genetic diversity, which reflects the variation in DNA within species and populations and is the key to their capacity to adapt in times of change, is being lost at an alarming rate. According to an article by 28 authors representing 16 countries, the loss of genetic diversity can affect resiliency in the face of environmental change and result in the loss of important services provided to society. Once gone, genetic diversity can take millennia to return.