Michael Jackson, Brian Ford-Lloyd and Martin Parry (eds.): Plant genetic resources and climate change

Abstract

‘‘The climate change that has been predicted is an enormous challenge for society worldwide’’. This sentence taken from the preface to the book ‘‘Plant genetic resources and climate change’’ by its editors discloses the rationale for this book. Thirty-four contributors in sixteen chapters report on solid experience and recent scientific advancement that might help devise strategies or develop sustainable systems able to mitigate the effects of the oncoming climate change on crop plants growth, and hence on food production. This book comes almost 25 years after a volume by the same authors with a similar title: Climatic change and plant genetic resources, edited by CABI in 1990, and which gathered contributions presented at the Second International Workshop on Plant Genetic Resources, held in Birmingham, UK, in April 1989. The 1990 book mostly dealt with the effects of the green house effect on domesticated plants. In the latest 25 years, though, knowledge on the oncoming climate change has dramatically increased, and the effects of the global climate change have become evident. A new picture of the present-day knowledge and perspectives was, therefore, necessary. Three chapters of the 2014 book deal with the impact of climate change on agriculture sensu lato. Chapter 1 describes the strong interplay between food security and plant genetic resources (PGRs) by exploring the different potential uses of PGRs in contributing to crop adaptation and to crop resilience to external inputs. This chapter also outlines possible scenarios for future rice breeding in relation to climate change. Chapter 3 deals with the complex picture of the drivers of climate change, and analyses the different models that make it possible to explain it. Which future will us experience is not well understood yet, so different possible scenarios are reported and reviewed. Chapter 4, after analysing several concurring impacts of climate change on different areas, including social ones, urges for a substantial reduction of greenhouse gases. It is now clear that, if not moderated, these emissions are projected to considerably increase the risk of hunger for large segments of the world population. Six chapters concern different aspects of plant genetic resources conservation and use. Chapter 2 reviews the present day knowledge on PGRs conservation and use. Many important developments have come forth in this science since the pioneering efforts of the ‘‘genetic resources movement’’, thanks to the introduction of molecular tools for the description and use of PGRs and as a consequence of devising novel approaches to their rational use. Important achievements facilitating access to PGRs derived directly D. Pignone (&) Institute of Bioscience and Bioresources, National Research Council, Bari, Italy e-mail: domenico.pignone@igv.cnr.it