Climate Change and Micro-Organism Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: State of Knowledge, Risks and Opportunities
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BACKGROUND STUDY PAPER NO. 57 May 2011 E COMMISSION ON GENETIC RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE CLIMATE CHANGE AND MICRO-ORGANISM GENETIC RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: STATE OF KNOWLEDGE, RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES by Fen Beed1, Anna Benedetti2, Gianluigi Cardinali3, Sukumar Chakraborty4, Thomas Dubois,5 Karen Garrett6 and Michael Halewood7 This document has been prepared at the request of the Secretariat of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, as a contribution to the crosssectoral theme, Consideration of scoping study on climate change and genetic resources for food and agriculture, which the Commission will consider at its Thirteenth Regular Session. The content of this document is entirely the responsibility of the authors, and does not necessarily represent the views of the FAO or its Members. 1 IITA, United Republic of Tanzania 2 Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA), Italy 3 Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy 4 CSIRO, Australia 5 IITA, Uganda 6 Kansas State University, United States of America 7 Bioversity International, Italy. For resaons of economy, this document is produced in a limited number of copies. Delegates and observers are kindly requested to bring their copies to meetings and to refrain from asking for additional copies, unless strictly necessary. The documents for this meeting are available on Internet at: http://www.fao.org ii BACKGROUND STUDY PAPER NO. 57 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 1 I. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1. Scope ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 1.2. Micro-organism genetic resources for food and agriculture..................................................................... 3 II. Importance of micro-organism genetic resources in sustainable agriculture and food security ........................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1. Links between functional groups and subgroups of micro-organisms ..................................................... 4 2.1.1. Soil inhabitants ............................................................................................................... 5 2.1.2. Plant and rhizosphere inhabitants .................................................................................... 6 2.1.3. Plant pathogens .............................................................................................................. 7 2.1.4. Biological control agents ................................................................................................. 9 2.1.5. Food production ........................................................................................................... 10 2.2. Differences of micro-organism genetic resources from other genetic resources .................................... 11 2.2.1 Biodiversity of micro-organisms is huge................................................................................. 11 2.2.2. Micro-organisms are invisible ................................................................................................. 12 2.2.3. Micro-organisms can adapt rapidly ........................................................................................ 13 2.3. New tools highlight increased importance of micro-organism genetic resources .................................. 15 III. Effects of climate change on micro-organism genentic resources for food and agriculture ............. 16 3.1. Some words on accepted definitions/scenarios ...................................................................................... 16 3.2. Effects are mediated through crop plants ............................................................................................... 16 3.3. Climate change effects on functional groups of micro-organisms ......................................................... 17 3.3.1. Soil, plant and rhizosphere inhabitants ................................................................................... 17 3.3.2. Plant pathogens ....................................................................................................................... 19 3.3.3. Biological control .................................................................................................................... 23 3.3.4. Post harvest and food transformation ...................................................................................... 26 3.4. Lessons learnt and limitations ................................................................................................................ 27 3.4.1. A lot of complexity and noise ................................................................................................... 27 3.4.2. Other important factors (e.g. ultraviolet radiation, sea level, drought, salinity) are excluded ........................................................................................................................................... 27 3.4.3. Importance of the ecosystem approach .................................................................................... 28 3.4.4. Combinations of factors have to be taken into account ........................................................... 29 3.4.5. Lack of essential information for decision making .................................................................. 30 IV. Role of micro-organism genetic resources in climate change buffering, adaptation and mitigation ............................................................................................................................................. 31 4.1. Role of micro-organism genetic resources in climate change buffering ................................................ 31 4.1.1. Definition ................................................................................................................................. 31 4.1.2. Resilience and sustainability of the ecosystem ......................................................................... 31 4.1.3. Micro-organism biodiversity leads to ecosystem resilience and sustainability ....................... 32 4.1.4. Adaptability of micro-organism genetic resources to a changing ecosystem .......................... 32 BACKGROUND STUDY PAPER NO. 57 iii 4.2. Role of micro-organism genetic resources in adapting to the effects of climate change ........................ 33 4.2.1. Definition ................................................................................................................................. 33 4.2.2. Conservation biological control .............................................................................................. 33 4.2.3. Biomonitoring and diagnosis ................................................................................................... 34 4.2.4. Soil micro-organism amendments ............................................................................................ 35 4.2.5. Improvement of the conservation and production of food by micro-organisms....................... 36 4.2.6. Biodiversity conservation and micro-organism collections ..................................................... 37 4.3. Role of micro-organism genetic resources in mitigating climate change ............................................... 38 4.3.1. Definition ................................................................................................................................. 38 4.3.2. Carbon budget ......................................................................................................................... 38 4.3.3. Energy budget and greenhouse gas budget ............................................................................. 39 4.3.4. Reducing food transportation and energy production ............................................................. 40 4.3.5. Reducing pesticide use ............................................................................................................. 41 V. Gaps .................................................................................................................................................. 42 5.1. Knowledge ................................................................................................................................ 42 5.1.1. Monitoring and surveillance .................................................................................................... 42 5.1.2. Methods for characterizing micro-organism species, communities and their functions .......... 43 5.1.3. Experimentation methods ......................................................................................................... 43 5.1.4. Standardized methods and metadata ....................................................................................... 44 5.1.5. Modelling ................................................................................................................................. 45 5.1.6 Biological control .................................................................................................................... 46 5.1.7. Deployment of micro-organisms in synergy with crop germplasm