Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity
High levels of crop species diversity are considered beneficial. However, increasing diversity might be difficult because of environmental constraints and the reliance on a few major crops for most food supply. Here we introduce a theoretical framework of hierarchical levels of crop diversity, in wh...
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| Format: | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| Language: | Inglés |
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IOP Publishing
2022
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/12482 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac62ab/meta https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac62ab |
| _version_ | 1855036766204985344 |
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| author | Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Hijmans, Robert J. |
| author_browse | Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Hijmans, Robert J. |
| author_facet | Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Hijmans, Robert J. |
| author_sort | Aramburu Merlos, Fernando |
| collection | INTA Digital |
| description | High levels of crop species diversity are considered beneficial. However, increasing diversity might be difficult because of environmental constraints and the reliance on a few major crops for most food supply. Here we introduce a theoretical framework of hierarchical levels of crop diversity, in which the environmental requirements of crops limit potential diversity, and the demand for agricultural products further constrain attainable crop diversity. We estimated global potential, attainable, and current crop diversity for grid cells of 86 km2 . To do so, we first estimated cropland suitability values for each of 171 crops, with spatial distribution models to get estimations of relative suitability and with a crop model to estimate absolute suitability. We then used a crop allocation algorithm to distribute the required crop area to suitable cropland. We show that the attainable crop diversity is lower in temperate and continental areas than in tropical and coastal regions. The diversity gap (the difference between attainable and current crop diversity) is particularly large in most of the Americas and relatively small in parts of Europe and East Asia. By filling these diversity gaps, crop diversity could double on 84% of the world’s agricultural land without changing the aggregate amount of global food produced. It follows that while there are important regional differences in attainable diversity, specialization of farms and regions is the main reason for low levels of local crop diversity across the globe, rather than our high reliance on a few crops. |
| format | info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo |
| id | INTA12482 |
| institution | Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA -Argentina) |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| publisherStr | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | INTA124822022-08-03T12:13:56Z Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Hijmans, Robert J. Cultivos Diversidad de Especies Diversificación Modelización de los Cultivos Agroecología Crops Species Diversity Diversification Crop Modelling Agroecology High levels of crop species diversity are considered beneficial. However, increasing diversity might be difficult because of environmental constraints and the reliance on a few major crops for most food supply. Here we introduce a theoretical framework of hierarchical levels of crop diversity, in which the environmental requirements of crops limit potential diversity, and the demand for agricultural products further constrain attainable crop diversity. We estimated global potential, attainable, and current crop diversity for grid cells of 86 km2 . To do so, we first estimated cropland suitability values for each of 171 crops, with spatial distribution models to get estimations of relative suitability and with a crop model to estimate absolute suitability. We then used a crop allocation algorithm to distribute the required crop area to suitable cropland. We show that the attainable crop diversity is lower in temperate and continental areas than in tropical and coastal regions. The diversity gap (the difference between attainable and current crop diversity) is particularly large in most of the Americas and relatively small in parts of Europe and East Asia. By filling these diversity gaps, crop diversity could double on 84% of the world’s agricultural land without changing the aggregate amount of global food produced. It follows that while there are important regional differences in attainable diversity, specialization of farms and regions is the main reason for low levels of local crop diversity across the globe, rather than our high reliance on a few crops. EEA Balcarce Fil: Aramburu Merlos, Fernando. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina. Fil: Aramburu Merlos, Fernando. University of California Davis. Department of Environmental Science and Policy; Estados Unidos. Fil: Hijmans, Robert J. University of California Davis. Department of Environmental Science and Policy; Estados Unidos. 2022-08-03T12:07:03Z 2022-08-03T12:07:03Z 2022-04-04 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/12482 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac62ab/meta 1748-9326 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac62ab eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) application/pdf IOP Publishing Environmental Research Letters 17 (4) : 044071 (2022) |
| spellingShingle | Cultivos Diversidad de Especies Diversificación Modelización de los Cultivos Agroecología Crops Species Diversity Diversification Crop Modelling Agroecology Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Hijmans, Robert J. Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity |
| title | Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity |
| title_full | Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity |
| title_fullStr | Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity |
| title_short | Potential, attainable, and current levels of global crop diversity |
| title_sort | potential attainable and current levels of global crop diversity |
| topic | Cultivos Diversidad de Especies Diversificación Modelización de los Cultivos Agroecología Crops Species Diversity Diversification Crop Modelling Agroecology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/12482 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac62ab/meta https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac62ab |
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