Ecology and Evolution of Plants under Domestication in the Neotropics

CASAS, ALEJANDRO; LADIO A H; CLEMENTS, CHARLES

Frontiers Media

Año: 2019 p. 284

978-2-88963-047-9

AVISO QUE NO HE PODIDO ADJUNTAR EL LIBRO COMPLETO PORQUE ES MAYOR A 35 Mb.The earliest studies on domestication and the origins of agriculture identified the Americas,particularly the Neotropics, as one of the settings with the earliest experiences of these processesin the world (Darwin, 1859, 1868; de Candolle, 1882; Vavilov, 1926). For a long time, Mesoamerica,and the Andean region were considered the main areas of origin of agriculture, but more recentlyAmazonia was shown to be similarly important (Clement et al., 2015; Levis et al., 2017). Analyzing how similar the processes were among these main regions and how much they influenced eachother remain mostly unexplored. This is relevant to understand how the domestication processes originated and diffused throughout the whole continent, as well as how ancient and currenthuman cultures of the region practiced and practice plant domestication (Casas et al., 2017). Inaddition, it is relevant to comprehend how peoples have practiced landscape domestication, whichinvolves human manipulation of landscapes resulting in ecological changes at that scale, as well asmore productive landscapes, congenial for humans (Clement, 1999).This research topic of Ecology and Evolution of Plants under Domestication in the Neotropicsshowcases 20 articles analyzing in depth 17 species in several Neotropical regions, as well asdozens of species from various perspectives. The studies include evolutionary, phylogeographic,ethnobotanical, population genetics, pollination biology, and ecological approaches. All arevaluable contributions that reflect the state-of-the-art and trends in research on domestication inthe Neotropics, and put new questions and hypotheses into perspective for further studies.