Developing methodologies for the global in situ conservation of crop wild relatives By Holly A. Vincent A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Biosciences The University of Birmingham June 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT Climate change is predicted to have far-reaching deleterious impacts worldwide; agriculture in particular is expected to be effected by significant loss of suitable land and crop yields in the world’s most populous and poorest regions. Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a rich source of underutilised genetic diversity which could help to mitigate climate change for agriculture through breeding new resilient varieties. However, CWR are under-conserved and threatened in the wild. This thesis researches and develops systematic methodologies to advance knowledge and support action on in situ CWR conservation at the global level. Methods included developing a global inventory of CWR associated with crops important for food security worldwide, species distribution modelling, climate change analysis, in situ gap analysis, reserve planning and prioritisation, and, examining the congruence of CWR distributions with regions of high biodiversity and crop diversity. The methods described here can be applied to CWR at both the national and regional level to ensure robust in situ CWR conservation. A principal success of this research is the global CWR inventory, which has been used in several national strategies and as the basis of a major ex situ germplasm collection mission worldwide. i “Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help. Only if we help shall they be saved” Jane Goodall “Do. Or do not. There is no try” Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back ii DECLARATION The work presented in Chapter 2 and Appendix 1has been published and Chapters 3–5 are being prepared for publication. The wording of Chapter 2 and Appendix 1 is largely identical to the manuscripts prepared for publication. All chapters were written by me and represent my own work. Chapter 2: Vincent, H., Wiersema, J., Kell, S., Fielder, H., Dobbie, S., Castañeda-Álvarez, N.P., Guarino, L., Eastwood, R., León, B. and Maxted, N. (2013) A prioritised crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security. Biological Conservation 167: 265–275. Appendix 1: Vincent, H., Castañeda-Álvarez, N.P., Maxted, N. (2016) An approach for in situ gap analysis and conservation planning on a global scale. In: Maxted, N., Ehsan Dulloo, M. and Ford- Lloyd, B.V. (eds.) Enhancing Crop Genepool Use: Capturing Wild Relative and Landrace Diversity for Crop Improvement. CAB International, Wallingford, UK. ISBN-13: 978-1- 78064-613-8. Signed: 27/06/2016 Student Supervisor Date iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Nigel Maxted for his guidance and support throughout a challenging project. I would also like to thank John Wiersema for donating his knowledge and time to help me in the creation of the Harlan and de Wet Inventory. Thanks to Tamara Smekalova, Natalia, Galina and Mikhail for their help in photographing and translating Russian herbarium material and for making me feel so welcome in Russia. I would also undoubtedly have lost hope and my mind without the support and friendship of my colleagues from S208. So, thank you to the whole CWR team, in particular, Hannah Fielder, Laura Rhodes and Jade Phillips for listening and for the games of Dobble. Particular thanks to Hannah for her support during write-up and encouraging me to keep going and not give up completely. I could not have carried out this work without funding from the Global Crop Diversity Trust and support from the University of Birmingham. I am also grateful to the European PGR Secure project for invitations to various conferences; I learned a great deal and met some wonderful people. I would finally like to thank my family, partner and friends for their tireless encouragement and emotional support. In particular, my parents for always encouraging me and helping wherever they can. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. xiii LIST OF SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES (on CD) .................................................................. xv CHAPTER 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Life on Earth .................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Biodiversity and human influence ................................................................................. 3 1.2.1 The biodiversity crisis ......................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Agriculture and the race for food security........................................................... 8 1.3 Plant genetic resources: the key to food security ........................................................ 11 1.3.1 Crop wild relatives ............................................................................................ 11 1.3.2 Utilisation of CWR genetic resources ............................................................... 15 1.3.3 Threats to CWR ................................................................................................. 16 1.3.4 Policy covering CWR ........................................................................................ 17 1.3.5 Systematic conservation of CWR...................................................................... 20 1.3.6 CWR gap analysis ............................................................................................. 22 1.3.7 Conservation techniques.................................................................................... 24 1.3.8 Focus on in situ conservation of CWR and protected areas .............................. 27 1.4 Research objectives ..................................................................................................... 32 1.5 Thesis outline .............................................................................................................. 33 v CHAPTER 2 A prioritised crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security ..................................................................................................................................... 37 2.1 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 38 2.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 38 2.3 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................ 42 2.3.1 Creation of the priority CWR inventory............................................................ 42 2.3.2 Analysis of the Harlan and de Wet inventory ................................................... 48 2.4 Results ......................................................................................................................... 48 2.5 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER 3 Global priorities for in situ conservation of wild plant genetic resources: towards the establishment of a global network of crop wild relative reserves ......................... 72 3.1 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 73 3.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 73 3.3 Methods ....................................................................................................................... 77 3.3.1 Determining target CWR and compiling occurrence data ................................ 77 3.3.2 Species distribution modelling .......................................................................... 78 3.3.3 Genetic diversity assessment ............................................................................. 80 3.3.4 In situ CWR gap analysis .................................................................................. 80 3.3.5 Prioritising areas for in situ conservation .......................................................... 81 3.4 Results ......................................................................................................................... 83 3.5 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 99 vi CHAPTER 4 A comparison of crop wild relative hotspots with biologically and ecologically important geographical regions;