Darwinian Agriculture

How Understanding Evolution Can Improve Agriculture

R. Ford Denison (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

272 Seiten

2016
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-17376-4 (ISBN)

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As human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability. Darwinian Agriculture presents an entirely new approach to these challenges, one that draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection. R. Ford Denison shows how both biotechnology and traditional plant breeding can use Darwinian insights to identify promising routes for crop genetic improvement and avoid costly dead ends. Denison explains why plant traits that have been genetically optimized by individual selection--such as photosynthesis and drought tolerance--are bad candidates for genetic improvement. Traits like plant height and leaf angle, which determine the collective performance of plant communities, offer more room for improvement. Agriculturalists can also benefit from more sophisticated comparisons among natural communities and from the study of wild species in the landscapes where they evolved.
Darwinian Agriculture reveals why it is sometimes better to slow or even reverse evolutionary trends when they are inconsistent with our present goals, and how we can glean new ideas from natural selection's marvelous innovations in wild species.

R. Ford Denison is adjunct professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota and taught crop ecology at the University of California, Davis.

List of Illustrations vii Chapter 1 Repaying Darwin's Debt to Agriculture 1 Chapter 2 What Do We Need from Agriculture? 9 Chapter 3 Evolution 101 28 The Power of Natural Selection Chapter 4 Darwinian Agriculture's Three Core Principles 43 Chapter 5 What Won't Work 54 Tradeoff-blind Biotechnology Chapter 6 Selfish Genes, Sophisticated Plants, and Haphazard Ecosystems 76 Chapter 7 What Won't Work 95 Misguided Mimicry of Natural Ecosystems Chapter 8 What Has Worked 120 Improving Cooperation within Species Chapter 9 What Could Work Better 145 Cooperation between Two Species Chapter 10 Stop Evolution Now! 164 Chapter 11 Learning from Plants, Ants, and Ecosystems 177 Chapter 12 Diversity, Bet-hedging, and Selection among Ideas 190 Acknowledgments 217 Glossary 219 References 227 Index 249

Erscheinungsdatum	04.08.2016
Verlagsort	New Jersey
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 235 mm
Gewicht	397 g
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
	Technik ► Umwelttechnik / Biotechnologie
	Weitere Fachgebiete ► Land- / Forstwirtschaft / Fischerei
ISBN-10	0-691-17376-1 / 0691173761
ISBN-13	978-0-691-17376-4 / 9780691173764
Zustand	Neuware