Birth Of Agriculture Research Articles

Anthropogenic Drivers Leading to Population Decline and Genetic Preservation of the Eurasian Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus).

Human activities are having increasingly devastating effects on the health of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Studying the adaptive responses of animal species to changes in their habitat can be useful in mitigating this impact. Vultures represent one of the most virtuous examples of adaptation to human-induced environmental changes. Once dependent on wild ungulate populations, these birds have adapted to the epochal change resulting from the birth of agriculture and livestock domestication, maintaining their essential role as ecological scavengers. In this review, we retrace the main splitting events characterising the vultures’ evolution, with particular emphasis on the Eurasian griffon Gyps fulvus. We summarise the main ecological and behavioural traits of this species, highlighting its vulnerability to elements introduced into the habitat by humans. We collected the genetic information available to date, underlining their importance for improving the management of this species, as an essential tool to support restocking practices and to protect the genetic integrity of G. fulvus. Finally, we examine the difficulties in implementing a coordination system that allows genetic information to be effectively transferred into management programs. Until a linking network is established between scientific research and management practices, the risk of losing important wildlife resources remains high.

Risk Assessment and Gene Flow: Implication for Genetic Resource Conservation (A Review Article)

In this review the primary strategies employed in compiling a risk assessment for gene flow from a GM crop to a wild crop relative are outlined. A risk is defined as the likelihood of harm resulting from exposure to the hazard. The spread of new genes and genetic exchange between crops and their wild relatives by introgressive hybridization has been a reality ever since the birth of agriculture. The significance of such gene flow has received little interest, however, until the advent of molecular biotechnology and the emergence of genetically modified (GM) crops. In principle, the scope for the transfer of certain, completely novel transgenes from GM crops into wild relatives means that there is an increased capacity for rapid jumps in the adaptation profile of the recipient. This capacity carries risks for the genetic integrity and evolutionary survival of the wild species, and of the survival of other species with which it coexists. In evaluating such potential problems, one must first define the unwanted outcomes (hazards) as clearly as possible, and then measure the likelihood of their occurrence (exposure). The assessment of risk can be compiled (Risk = hazard × exposure). Risk is estimated as the product of the probability of exposure, P ( E ), and the conditional probability of harm given that exposure has occurred, P ( H|E ). That is, R = P ( E ) x P ( H|E ). In measuring risks in this way, it is important to consider the management of the crop, the ecology, demography and population genetics of the wild species, the number, nature and location of the transgene(s) and the extent of introgression within the natural setting. Crucially, these assessments should be made against comparable risks posed by non-GM cultivars of the same crop (i.e. baseline data) so that judgements can be made concerning the significance of any change envisaged. Keywords: Conservation, Gene flow, Genetic resources, Hazards, Risks DOI : 10.7176/ALST/73-02 Publication date : April 30 th 2019

Atlantis: A Grain of Truth Behind the Fiction?

The legend of Atlantis was almost certainly invented by Plato to promote the political ideal of his masterwork The Republic, while praising the heroism of his own ancestors. This paper suggests that, in assembling the story, Plato might have reworked the myth of the foundation of Egypt—attributed to divine invaders bringing agriculture and unknown technologies to the country—and popularized in Greece through the writings of Herodotus. The key issue explored is the curious coincidence between the period of the alleged foundation of Egypt (according to traditional Egyptian sources) and some remarkable events that characterized the end of the Ice Age. Indeed, besides the sudden increase in temperature and the consequent rise in sea level, the period was also marked by the birth of agriculture and the appearance of totally new technologies in diverse Near Eastern locations. The memory of these events would have been handed down through the myth of the foundation of Egypt, and through this, to Greek culture, enabling Plato to exaggerate the antiquity of his noble ancestors, while embellishing the characteristics of the invaders. Such occasional technological leaps may also have occurred elsewhere in the world, for instance on the deltas of the Indus or the Yangtze, driven by the same change in climate that affected the whole planet. Although today there is no archaeological evidence of such events besides in the Near East, the article suggests that the possible discovery of obsidian in a submerged site would be a strong indication of a local technological leap. To this end it examines, as a Mediterranean example, some flooded islands in the Strait of Sicily, which, lying on the route to Pantelleria, may retain traces of ancient obsidian exploitation.

Maize Yield Potential

Plant breeders have been enhancing desirable traits in crops like flavor, yield, and pest resistance since the birth of agriculture. Some of these transformations have dramatically changed the appearance of crops. One example is maize. Breeding practices have taken maize from a grass with little seed production to the top grain crop produced worldwide. Even with the high-yielding maize varieties available, there is great demand for maize to be used in food products, animal feed, and biofuel. Increasing yield potential is a combination of genetics and management practices. Planting timing and spacing, the application of fertilizer, irrigation, and weather conditions throughout a season interact with genotypes. For maize, there are two main traits that breeders can focus on to increase maize production without increasing the number of acres planted. The first is increasing the number of kernels or kernel size of plants so that individual plants produce more grain. The second is to increase the density tolerance of plants, enabling farmers to decrease the spacing between plants and rows, such that more maize can be planted on existing cropland. In recent history, density tolerance appears to have been the focus of breeding efforts. In the 1950s, planting densities of 30,000 plants/ha were the maximum, whereas currently, farmers plant up to 80,000 plants/ha. Maize breeder and geneticist Elizabeth Lee, from the University of Guelph, points out that while density tolerance may have received most attention, other traits were also improved upon. One example is the stay-green trait, where plants have an extended growth period even in dry conditions. “Stay green is basically a balancing of source and sink,” Lee explains. “The amount of carbon fixed during the grain period has been improved, which results in better stay green.” However, at the same time, kernel size and number have shown limited change and have not contributed to increased maize yields. Lee and co-authors recently published an article in Crop Science (http://bit.ly/2Et6Nvh) to investigate if there is potential for breeders to increase both kernel size and number (referred to in the article as yield potential) as well as the density tolerance in future hybrids. In this article, the researchers present the results of a series of experiments using commercially available hybrids as a starting point. “The experimental hybrids tested represented the four possible combinations of density tolerance and yield potential,” Lee explains. The researchers grew these hybrids in a range of densities over multiple years. Across hybrids and experimental conditions, they observed differences in maize yields and further investigated how yield was impacted by harvest index (ratio of grain yield to total biomass) and kernel set efficiency (number of kernels at harvest per gram of dry matter fixed per day at silking). The researchers explain that the harvest index was not correlated with yield potential. This applied to genotypes with and without density tolerance. Kernel set efficiency was also investigated. Genotypes with high density tolerance had a static kernel set efficiency, regardless of the density they were planted at. From these results, the researchers concluded that the genetic and biological mechanisms that control these two traits are distinct. The results were not a surprise to the team. “We knew that historically there were hybrids known as flex-ear hybrids that could take advantage of situations where there was a reduced plant stand,” Lee says. These flex-ear hybrids can produce a greater yield than fixed-ear varieties with fewer plants, so the research team had a hunch that the genes for kernel size and number were present and flexible in the commercial germplasm available. “Genotypes possessing both attributes were easily identified in a segregating population, which is also evidence that genetic variation is still present for yield potential in the commercial germplasm pool,” the authors state in the article. Lee says that these results are “applicable to environments where drought and high temperatures are not the main limitations of yield, which are Canada and the traditional U.S. Corn Belt in most growing seasons.” The U.S. and Canada are major producers of maize, and while it has not been confirmed that maize has reached a yield plateau in North America, yield increases may be slowing. Research suggests that solar brightening is responsible for 27% of maize yield gains from 1984 to 2013. Additionally, the yield gap has narrowed to less than 25% between observed and potential maize yields. If maize is nearing a plateau, this research will be important information for maize breeders as it demonstrates that breeders can focus on increasing kernel size or number without altering density tolerance to provide a way to continue to increase maize yields to meet future demands. Check out the Crop Science article, “Maize Yield Potential and Density Tolerance” at: http://bit.ly/2Et6Nvh.

Concrete Jungle: New York City and Our Last Best Hope for a Sustainable Future by Niles Eldredge and Sidney Horenstein

Reviewed by: Concrete Jungle: New York City and Our Last Best Hope for a Sustainable Future by Niles Eldredge and Sidney Horenstein Georgina G. Deweese Concrete Jungle: New York City and Our Last Best Hope for a Sustainable Future Niles Eldredge and Sidney Horenstein. University of California Press, Oakland, CA, 2014. 288 pp.; maps, diagrams, illustations, notes, bibliog., index. $27.55 cloth (ISBN 978-0520270152). Concrete Jungle covers a wide range of topics, not all of them thoroughly, that represent a culmination of the interests and research of the authors, Eldredge and Horenstein, both long-time scholars and employees of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (NYC). The title of the book gave me the impression that it would describe how NYC, as a large city, has tackled urban environmental problems and developed a sustainability plan. However, this book was more a short history—political, geological and biogeographical—of the city. The title speaks more to the authors’ own love and admiration for the city than it does any actual plans or policies the city has in place for the future. This book would be of great interest and usefulness to anyone from NYC and scholars actively involved in research in NYC because of the historical information the book offers. Concrete Jungle itself does not adequately cover any of the topics it introduces, instead offering a smattering of interesting facts throughout. For example, NYC Revolutionary War history, the importance of nitrogen, extinctions, invasive species, and pollution are all touched upon. All of these in the context of a large metropolitan area would be a useful introduction of these topics to novices, but readers would find themselves having to complete their basic education on these topics from other sources. In other words, the authors fail to develop a narrative or argument to which all of the introduced topics contribute. Additionally, there are no adequate maps in this book, and a single map of the entire NYC area showing locations mentioned in the book is sorely needed. The authors describe the objective of Concrete Jungle as follows: In the ensuing chapters, as we survey the challenges and solutions of America’s leading first-world metropolis, New York City, we will see in microcosmic detail how a small foothold in the New World grew throughout a history that was neither fully planned nor untroubled, and how the city arrived at its twenty-first century position as an exemplar of metropolitan greatness. (27) This is never achieved by the book. Examples of challenges and solutions the city has faced in the past are described, as are their solutions (see the following sections). However, twenty-first century problems are not addressed and readers are left without a good explanation as to why NYC, the 8th largest city in the world in terms of population, is an exemplar of metropolitan greatness. Cities are born, live, decline, and die; in between, they are in constant flux. The birth of cities was only possible with the [End Page 251] birth of agriculture. Agriculture significantly increased the human footprint on the Earth by increasing human populations. Concrete Jungle introduces a short history of global agriculture, which could have included the role of agriculture in the rise of urban pollution, land cover change, loss of biodiversity, rise of inequality, disease, and climate change. Short tidbits of information are given about New York City’s agricultural history, which are interesting, but the reason for their inclusion is not obvious in the end. Much of the NYC area is metamorphic, created during the formation and deformation of Rhodinia and later Pangaea. Dinosaur and ice age mammal fossils are commonly found in the area. The authors’ brief description of the geologic history of NYC was mainly aimed at connecting NYC to the other regions of the world though rock and fossils. Every introductory physical geography textbook uses Central Park in New York City as an example of a glacial landscape, and Concrete Jungle explains where readers can find examples of glacial outwash and till. The fault line that dissects Manhattan and that explains the island’s unusual subway patterns is also mentioned a few times. Manhattan is underlain by...

Ecopsychology and Evolutionary Psychology: Implications and Limitations of Habitat Selection Theory

This paper discusses how evolutionary psychology can be applied to ecopsychology, with particular emphasis on habitat selection theory as a way of making sense of preferences for natural environments. We argue that the usefulness of habitat selection theory is limited by a prevailing view of “slow” human evolution, where humans are seen to be best adapted to a hunter-gatherer way of life on the African savanna. Research suggests otherwise, that humans have adapted to a range of different environments and have continued to evolve since the birth of agriculture. Thus, humans today do not long for the African savanna. Implications follow for future research in ecopsychology and the design of the built environment. Key Words: Ecopsychology—Evolutionary psychology—Environmental psychology—Habitat selection—Biophilia.

English

Three major physical resources in the world comprise land, water and the biological diversity. Agricultural biodiversity is an important component of biodiversity, which has a more direct link to the well being and livelihood of mankind than other forms of bio¬diversity. In fact, it is one of our most fundamental and essential resources, one that has enabled farming systems to evolve since the birth of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Food plant and animal species have been collected, used, domesticated and improved through traditional sys¬tems of selection over many generations. The resulting diversity of genetic resources developed by early farmers now forms the basis on which modern high yielding and disease resistant varieties have been produced to feed the growing human population, expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), “agricultural biodiversity in¬cludes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological biodiversity that constitute agro-ecosystems: the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms, at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels, which are neces¬sary to sustain key functions of the agricultural ecosystem, its structure and processes”. The effective conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity is very important in ensuring sustainable increases in the productivity and produc¬tion of healthy food by and for mankind as well as contrib¬uting to increased resilience of agricultural ecosystems. Key words: Agricultural biodiversity, ecosystem, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), domestication, human population, variability.

Innovations, food storage and the origins of agriculture

The global phenomenon of the birth of agriculture remains an enigma and challenges the role of food storage. Much has been written about their invention. A general explanation is needed for its progression in various parts of the world, which is both sociologically based and founded on the archaeological data. This task led Alain Testart to claim that it was by developing their existing skill sets (foraging, pottery, food storage and small-scale agriculture) that nomadic hunter-gatherers, burdened by an increasingly diverse set of tools and equipment, became sedentary. This sedentarism in turn allowed them to specialise in those activities, which had (literally) weighed them down: notably, breeding the first plant cultivars and, often, storing food.

A History of water: v.2: Rivers and society: from the birth of agriculture to modern times

A History of water: v.2: Rivers and society: from the birth of agriculture to modern times

Agronomic Adaptation of Some Field Crops: A General Approach

AbstractThis study is focused on the various agronomic traits to adaptation of cultivated field crops. As known, there is a close and strong relationship between cultivation (also known as domestication) and adaptation. Life has existed for more than 2500 million years on Earth and the birth of agriculture, some 10 000 years ago in the Middle East’s fertile crescent, revolutionized human culture and society. Plants survive (they live and grow) in new and different areas. Adaptations are special features that allow a plant or animal to live in a particular place or habitat. These adaptations might make it very difficult for the plant to survive in a different place. In general, field crops must be placed in an environment that meets their ‘requirements’. The future of agricultural productivity and sustainability depends on the ability of crop plants (here, field crops) to grow and be productive in response to changing environments. The term ‘adaptation’ refers to the ability of different species with different genetic make‐ups to cope with a specific range of circumstances such as climate, food supply, habitat, defence and movement. Adaptations can be structural (shape, skin colour etc.), behavioural (special ways in which a particular organ behaves to survive in its natural habitat), physiological (systems present in an organism for it to perform certain biochemical reactions such as venom, sweat, secreting slime), etc. This explains why certain plants are found in one area, but not in another. You would not see any plant from the Cactaceae family living in the Arctic Regions nor would you see lots of really tall trees living in grasslands! Environmental factors, such as photosynthetic activities, biodiversity and soil conditions, are related to this subject. Each grower should consider vital points such as marketing potential(s), transportation, storage, yield and price, producer’s resources and most importantly, specific plant adaptational requirements and peculiarities. On the other hand, global heating (or global warming) is a most intensive subject and it has an important place. Especially, relationship to field crops, their production and yield levels of this topic's harmful effect(s) must be restricted or removed with proper agronomic action(s).

Proto-Neolithic and Neolithic Cultures in the Middle East—the Birth of Agriculture, Livestock Raising, and Ceramics: a Calibrated 14C Chronology 12,500-5500 cal BC

We present for the first time a fully calibrated radiocarbon chronology of Proto-Neolithic and Neolithic cultures in the Middle East covering the time range from 12,500 to 5500 cal BC. A total of 1300 14C dates were evaluated, leading to the selection of 731 reliable dates. These were calibrated in a special collective approach presented in a series of graphs. The 14C dates are derived from 160 sites across the Middle East. The period with Proto-Neolithic cultures began around 12500 cal BC and lasted for more than 4000 years. The true Neolithic, with agriculture and livestock breeding, appeared just before 8000 cal BC, subsequently spreading across a wide area within just a few hundred years. Ceramics first occurred around 7000 cal BC. The Mesopotamian cultures that emerged around 6000 cal BC started the urban revolution.

Mouse as the measure of man?

The humble house mouse’s cohabitation with humans has been noted since the birth of agriculture, about 10 000 years ago, in the fertile flood plains of the Middle East. In recent times, however, the mouse has been elevated from pest to model for the study of human health and disease. Recent genomics and genetics initiatives will ensure the continued growth of the house mouse as a disease model.

The rise and fall of Homo sapiens sapiens.

Human beings have broken the ecological 'law' that says that big, predatory animals are rare. Two crucial innovations in particular have enabled us to alter the planet to suit ourselves and thus permit unparalleled expansion: speech (which implies instant transmission of an open-ended range of conscious thoughts) and agriculture (which causes the world to produce more human food than unaided nature would do). However, natural selection has not equipped us with a long-term sense of self-preservation. Our population cannot continue to expand at its present rate for much longer, and the examples of many other species suggests that expansion can end in catastrophic collapse. Survival beyond the next century in a tolerable state seems most unlikely unless all religions and economies begin to take account of the facts of biology. This, if it occurred, would be a step in cultural evolution that would compare in import with the birth of agriculture.

Developing a Company Outlook in Universities

The university has no choice; either it remains a cold virgin locked in some ivory tower or it indulges in prostitution. (With some perversity one could even imagine that prostitution may take place inside the ivory tower.) Everybody, from Namibia to the U.K. and from China to Belgium, is complaining about the poor relationship between universities and industry. If we wish to do something about it, we must first of all clearly understand why there is a need for a relationship-or improved relationship-between the two. The world has been undergoing a profound change since the end of the Second World War. This change is comparable in magnitude only to the birth of agriculture some 9000 years ago. For the first time, man's environment is no longer nature, but man-made objects: that is, culture. The geological impact of man on earth is no longer negligible: installed power plants have a total capacity which is comparable to tidal power; we are as powerful as the moon. The social impact of science and technology has become the main factor in our evolution. Technology, the scientific approach to our products and processes, has replaced techniques and knowhow. Almost everything is now amenable to calculus; a revolution has occurred in a very short space of time. When I was a boy, my grandmother used to tell me not to play by the windmills because they were so dangerous. Yet windmills were probably found by the people of Harapa, near the Indus Valley, some 1500 years before Christ. We have a tendency to underestimate the rapidity of the technological revolution. Our university system is very old; it came out of a long trial and error process and is not suited to the new era. Clearly, we must analyse why. The first answer is that there is a complete contradiction, (of the type that Chinese people call 'Mao Toun', that is, irreducible contradiction) between to know and to do. You may take the sum of knowledge, but it is not going to result in any action. You may add up all actions, but no knowledge will come out of it. There is an orthogonal relationship between the many disciplines of science and the many branches of engineering. One must bear in mind the resulting matrix. The problem is that, since the advent of technology, no intersection between line and column in this matrix is empty. Today each science becomes useful to all industries, while every industry has a need for all sciences. One cannot think of this contradiction as purely static. People used to the methods of science and devoted to knowledge quickly lose their aptitude for action and even their capacity for understanding the rules of the game and the laws of