Recent land use and management changes decouple the adaptation of livestock diversity to the environment

Elena Velado-Alonso,Ignacio Morales-Castilla,Antonio Gómez-Sal

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-77878-2

Elena Velado-Alonso, Ignacio Morales-Castilla + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77878-2

Copy DOI

Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Dec 1, 2020
Citations: 11	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Alcalá, George Mason University

Abstract

Native livestock breeds, i.e. those autochthonous to a specific region, are locally adapted domesticated animals that conserve genetic resources, guaranty food security and provide agroecosystem services. Native breeds are largely threatened worldwide by agricultural intensification and rural areas abandonment processes related to recent changes in production schemes and planning. Yet, our gap of knowledge regarding livestock breed-environment relationships may prevent the design of successful conservation measures. In this work, we analyse the links between livestock diversity -i.e. richness of native breeds- and a selection of environmental factors that express at broad scales, with a temporal perspective. We compare native breeds distributional patterns before and after the agricultural intensification, in the context of land-use change in mainland Spain. Our results confirm the existence of strong associations between the distribution of native livestock breeds and environmental factors. These links, however, weaken for contemporary distributions. In fact, changes in breed distribution reflect a shift towards more productive environments. Finally, we found that the areas having higher breed richness are undergoing land abandonment processes. Succeeding in the conservation of threatened native breeds will require going beyond merely genetic and production-oriented views. Ecological and sociocultural perspectives should also be accounted for as global change processes are determinant for livestock agrobiodiversity.

Highlights

Native livestock breeds, i.e. those autochthonous to a specific region, are locally adapted domesticated animals that conserve genetic resources, guaranty food security and provide agroecosystem services
Our results show a major effect of environmental factors on the distribution of local livestock breed diversity both for past –i.e. before agricultural intensification- and current distributions –i.e. after agricultural intensification
Despite the major role played by humans on the differentiation and distribution of livestock breeds[9], the environment has an imprint on the distribution of livestock diversity

Summary

Introduction

I.e. those autochthonous to a specific region, are locally adapted domesticated animals that conserve genetic resources, guaranty food security and provide agroecosystem services. Native livestock breeds are those autochthonous and locally adapted to a specific region[5] They are intraspecific groups with identifiable inheritable external traits[6], resulted from differentiation processes of domesticated animals[7,8]. Native livestock breeds represent important ecocultural -i.e. culturally and environmentally mediated- entities to p reserve[13] They help maintaining the diversity of animal genetic resources and guaranty food security[13,14]. There are 7,136 livestock breeds that occurs only in one country catalogued by FAO worldwide, of which 27% are endangered and 65% have an unknown s tatus[17]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion