The Debate on Plant and Crop Biodiversity and Biotechnology Klaus Ammann, [email protected] Version from December 15, 2017, 480 full text references, 117 pp. ASK-FORCE contribution No. 11 Nearly 470 references on biodiversity and Agriculture need still to be screened and selected. Contents: 1. Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3 2. The needs for biodiversity – the general case ................................................................................................................ 3 3. Relationship between biodiversity and ecological parameters ..................................................................................... 5 4. A new concept of sustainability ....................................................................................................................................... 6 4.1. Revisiting the original Brundtland definition of sustainable development ...............................................................................................................7 4.2. Redefining Sustainability for Agriculture and Technology, see fig. 1 .........................................................................................................................8 5. The Issue: unnecessary stigmatization of GMOs .......................................................................................................... 12 6. Types of Biodiversity ....................................................................................................................................................... 14 6.1 Toward a general theory of biodiversity ................................................................................................................................................................... 14 6.2. Genetic diversity and dynamics ................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 6.3. Long term aspects of biodiversity, statistics ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 6.4. Species diversity ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 6.5. Ecosystem diversity ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 7. Biodiversity Distribution ................................................................................................................................................. 18 7.1. Global Biodiversity Distribution ................................................................................................................................................................................ 18 7.2. On Centers of Biodiversity and Centers of Crop diversity ....................................................................................................................................... 19 8. Loss of Biodiversity in general ........................................................................................................................................ 24 8.1. Species loss will increase, its impact ......................................................................................................................................................................... 24 8.2. Agriculture as the major factor of biodiversity loss ................................................................................................................................................. 30 8.3. Adaptation and other factors compensate for species loss .................................................................................................................................... 34 9. Crop Biodiversity reduced or not? It depends on how you interpret or manipulate the statistics ........................... 36 2 10. Biodiversity within GM crop fields enhanced: Non-target insects are better off. .................................................... 43 11. Farm Practices and its Influence on Biodiversity: a mixed Bag .................................................................................. 44 11.1. Nature’s fields: ancient wild crop relatives grew often in monodominant stands .............................................................................................. 44 11.2. About extreme Dynamics of Agro-Systems ........................................................................................................................................................... 45 11.3. The Influence of Agriculture on surrounding Biodiversity..................................................................................................................................... 45 12. Introduced and invasive species, a potential threat to biodiversity .......................................................................... 54 13. Biodiversity as a ‘biological insurance’ against ecosystem disturbance .................................................................... 54 14. Agrobiodiversity and Global Warming ........................................................................................................................ 58 15. Agrobiodiversity and the food web of insects show extreme population dynamics ............................................... 58 16. The case of organic farming, influence on biodiversity and yield comparisons ....................................................... 59 17. Selected proposals for improving high technology agriculture related to biodiversity ........................................... 66 17.1. Biodiversity and the management of agricultural landscapes .............................................................................................................................. 66 17.2. More biodiversity through mixed cropping ........................................................................................................................................................... 67 17.3. On the wish list: more crop diversity, foster orphan crop species. ....................................................................................................................... 68 17.4. Varietal mixture of genes and seeds ...................................................................................................................................................................... 68 17.5. More biodiversity in the food web including non-target insects by reducing pesticide use with transgenic crops and other strategies ........ 68 17.6. Questions about biodiversity and developing countries ....................................................................................................................................... 69 17.7. Proposals adapted to Innovation of Agriculture in Developing Countries. .......................................................................................................... 70 17.8. Improvement of conventional breeding ................................................................................................................................................................ 71 17.9. New ways of using biotechnology for enhancing natural resistance of crops ..................................................................................................... 71 17.10. Final remarks on the improvement list related to biodiversity .......................................................................................................................... 72 18. Case studies on the impact of transgenic crops on biodiversity and health ............................................................. 73 18.1. The case of herbicide tolerant crops, Application of Conservation Tillage easier with herbicide tolerant crops .............................................. 73 18.2. The Case of Impact of Bt maize on non-target organisms .................................................................................................................................... 75 18.3. Biodiversity data in GM crops other than Bt resistance and Herbicide tolerance ............................................................................................... 80 18.4. Bt-corn has less cancer causing mycotoxins than conventional corn ................................................................................................................... 81 19. Some closing words: ..................................................................................................................................................... 83 20 Cited Literature .............................................................................................................................................................. 84 3 1. Summary The need for biodiversity on all levels is made clear (2): Biodiversity provides a source of significant economic, aesthetic, health and cultural benefits (3.). Relationships between biodiversity and ecosystems is given in a table (3.1.) and a new concept of sustainability with more emphasis on development and progress is given (3.2.) Types of biodiversity