Ex situ and in situ conservation gap analysis of crop wild relative diversity in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East

Genet Resour Crop Evol https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-020-01017-z (0123456789().,-volV) (0123456789().,-volV) RESEARCH ARTICLE Ex situ and in situ conservation gap analysis of crop wild relative diversity in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East Wathek Zair . Nigel Maxted . Joana Magos Brehm . Ahmed Amri Received: 17 October 2019 / Accepted: 15 September 2020  The Author(s) 2020 Abstract Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are important reservoirs of adaptive traits for crop breeding programmes. Both ex situ and in situ conservation approaches should be deployed to ensure CWR availability for use. This paper aims to (a) create a regional database of occurrence records for the 441 priority CWRs in the Fertile Crescent, (b) identify CWR-rich areas in the Fertile Crescent, (c) recommend locations to implement genetic reserves intended for CWRs active in situ conservation and (d) undertake ex situ and in situ conservation gap analyses. The study area comprises Jordan, Syria, Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. Occurrence records of the 441 priority CWR within the Fertile Crescent were gathered from herbaria, gene banks and online databases. Gaps in the current ex situ and in situ conservation were identified. Hotspots of CWR diversity were identified, and complementary analysis was carried Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-020-01017-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. W. Zair (&)
N. Maxted
J. M. Brehm School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK e-mail: A. Amri Genetic Resources Section, International Centre for Agricultural Research, Dry Areas (ICARDA), Rabat, Morocco out to identify areas for in situ conservation using DIVA-GIS. Then proposed genetic reserves were compared with the existing protected areas to establish genetic reserve areas whether within or outside the protected areas. A total of 23,878 occurrence records were collated for 441 CWR priorities. The first priority grid square is located in Syria near Tal Kalakh City, close to the Lebanese border from the north. The second priority site is located in Turkey’s Izmir Province near Kemal Atatürk Mahallesi. The third priority site is located in Turkey’s Sahinbey/Gaziantep Province. The ex situ gap analysis revealed that of the 441 taxa, 134 (30%) CWRs are totally absent from the current gene banks collections. Only 307 (70%) CWRs are represented in gene banks, and, of these taxa, 252 (57%) of them have less than 10 accessions in gene banks. A total of 353 taxa were categorised as a high priority for collection and conservation; 23 taxa were categorised as a medium priority and 41 taxa as a low priority. However, 24 taxa were identified that did not require urgent collection (see Supplementary Table 7). The most important areas for a further collection of ex situ conservation are located in the west and south of Turkey across the Mediterranean seashore, north of Lebanon and west of Syria (in Lattakia and Tartus Governorate), across the border between Turkey and Syria and northern Iraq. Ten genetic reserves are recommended in the Fertile Crescent for CWR conservation. The results and methods used will help meet the conservation targets 123 Genet Resour Crop Evol of CWR in the Fertile Crescent; they will also help achieve global food security. Keywords Conservation
Gap analysis
Species richness
Complementary analysis
Genetic diversity Introduction The Fertile Crescent is a geographical term that has been used historically to describe the northern part of the Middle East and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, including Jordan, Syria, Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq (Breasted 1916; Clay 1924). Not only is the Fertile Crescent recognised for plant species concentration but also specifically for its agrobiodiversity wealth (Vavilov 1926; Zhukovsky 1950; Harlan 1951; Harlan and Zohary 1966; Zohary 1969) in terms of both rich diversity of cultivated plants and wild relatives. It is the domestication centre of major crops, such as Triticum monococcum L. (einkorn wheat), Triticum durum Desf. (durum wheat), Triticum turgidum L. (poulard wheat), Triticum aestivum L. (bread wheat), Hordeum vulgare L. (cultivated tworowed barley), Secale cereale L. (rye), Avena byzantina K. Koch (red oat), Cicer arietinum L. (chickpea), Lens esculenta Moench. (lentil), Pisum sativum L. (pea), Medicago sativa L. (blue alfalfa) and Sesamum indicum L. (sesame) (Hawkes 1983; Morrell and Clegg 2007). The Fertile Crescent region has significant historical value as a place where agriculture was first developed. Recent evidence indicates that agriculture started on a small scale in Ohalo II in Israel around 23,000 years ago (Snir et al. 2015). The Fertile Crescent is a center of plant diversity. It is part of the global hotspot ‘‘the Mediterranean Basin’’. The Mediterranean Basin is a biologically diverse hotspot of global importance, primarily because of its great plant diversity. Approximately 10% of the Earth’s vascular plants (25,000) exist in the Mediterranean Basin on less than 2% of the area of land on Earth, and 50% of these species exist nowhere else on the planet (Myers 1990). To conserve agriculture biodiversity or plant genetic materials, two approaches have been proposed. The first one is in situ conservation, which refers to the conservation of plant genetic materials in their original geographic location in which they belong and their distinctive property that has 123 developed over the years (CBD 1992). In situ conservation can be done in protected areas. A protected area is a geographical area that is built to archive one particular conservation aim or more (CBD 1992). Ex situ conservation is the method that involves conserving species outside their natural surroundings. It could be done in gene banks, botanic gardens or another environment. Crop wild relatives are threatened in their natural habitat; this is due to urbanisation, constructing of roads, deforestation, desertification, intensive farming, erosion of soil and plant genetic resources, pollution of land and water, scarcity of water, overgrazing, and the impact of climate change (El-Beltagy 2006; Derneg 2010). Trigo et al. (2010) state that climate change impacted negatively on the vegetation in the Fertile Crescent (Trigo et al. 2010). For all the above-mentioned reasons, there is an urgent need to conserve CWR in the Fertile Crescent and conserve their natural habitats. The demand for agrobiodiversity is increasing to help produce more food to feed a growing human population, which is expected to reach 11.2 billion by 2100 (UN 2017); there is also rising expectations among consumers for high-quality crops. The lack of natural resources (e.g. water and farming land), climate change, and land and water pollution have put further pressure on food and agricultural production globally (FAO 2011; Asseng (...truncated)