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Home gardens of Central Asia: Reservoirs of diversity of fruit and nut tree species.

ABSTRACT: Central Asia is an important center of origin for many globally valued fruit and nut tree species. Forest degradation and deforestation are cause for concern for the conservation of these valuable species, now confined to small remnant populations. Home gardens have the important function of sustaining household food consumption and income generation, and can potentially play a critical role in conserving diversity of fruit and nut trees. These systems have been very poorly documented in the scientific literature. This study contributes to filling this gap by describing the diversity of fruit and nut trees in home gardens of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, examining their dynamic flow of planting material and its sources, understanding their future prospects, and looking at significant differences between the three countries. Home gardens show a similar portfolio of the most abundant tree species (apple, apricot, walnut, pear, and plum). Although the diversity of tree species and varieties recorded is significant, small population sizes can limit future possibilities for this diversity to thrive, given the pressure on natural stands and on habitats where the preferred species are found. Furthermore, the selection of species and varieties to be planted in home gardens is increasingly influenced by market opportunities and availability of exotic material. Some of the most abundant tree species recorded are represented largely by exotic varieties (apple, pear), while others (e.g., apricot, walnut, plum) are still mainly characterized by traditional local varieties that are not formally registered. Home gardens continue to play a critical role in rural livelihoods and in national economies, and many rural inhabitants still aspire to maintain them. Thus, home gardens should be integrated in national research and extension systems and closely linked to national conservation efforts. Changes and possible declines in the diversity they host, their health status, and resilience should be carefully monitored.

SUBMITTER: Vinceti B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9333230 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Home gardens are considered germplasm repositories and places for experimentation, thus they are key sites for the domestication of plants. Domestication is considered a constant process that occurs along a continuum from wild to managed to domesticated populations. Management may lead to the modification of populations and in other cases to their distribution, changing population structure in a landscape. Our objective is focused on the management received in home gardens by perennial species of fruits. For this, the management practices applied to native and exotic perennial fruits species by a group of 20 women in the periurban zone of Iguazú, Argentina, were analyzed. In-depth interviews were conducted, as well as guided tours for the recognition and collection of specimens of species and ethnovarieties. Sixty-six fruit species managed in the home gardens were recorded. The predominant families are Rutaceae, Myrtaceae, and Rosaceae. The fruit species with the highest number of associated management practices are pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) and pindó (Syagrus rommanzoffiana). The 10 species with the highest management intensity are (in decreasing order of intensity) banana (Musa x paradisiaca), palta (Persea americana), pitanga (E. uniflora), mango (Mangifera indica), cocú (Allophylus edulis), mamón (Carica papaya), guayaba (Psidium guajava), limón mandarina (Citrus x taitensis), güembé (Philodendron bipinnatifidum), and mandarina (Citrus reticulata). Among the families with the greatest modifications in their distribution, abundance and presence of ethnovarieties in domestic gardens, are the native Myrtaceae and the exotic Rutaceae. The main management practices involved are cultivation, tolerance, transplant and enhancement in decreasing order. It can be concluded that in Iguazú, fruit species management shows both in plant germplasm as in environment a continuum that through tolerance, transplant and cultivation latu sensu has derived in a mosaic of species in different management situations, which in turn are representative of an anthropogenic landscape in constant domestication and change.

Project description:BackgroundHome gardens are popular micro land-use system and are socioeconomically linked with people for their livelihood. In the foothill region of Eastern Himalaya, very less documentations are available on species richness of the home gardens, particularly on the ethnomedicinal plants. We assumed that the home garden owners of the study site are domesticating ethnomedicinal plants which are not easily accessible to them in the wild due to distant forest. This study was planned to explore and document the diversity and population status of ethnomedicinal plants in the home gardens along with its ethnomedicinal use.MethodsThe present study was conducted in the home gardens of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal from May 2017 to May 2018. A multidisciplinary approach like collection of plant specimen, interview with structured questionnaire for documenting the utilization pattern, and quadrat methods for population study was applied. We selected 150 study sites randomly in the village cluster. The owners of the gardens were the respondents for the household survey. The study documented diversity, population size, and medicinal uses of ethnomedicinal plant species identified by the garden owners growing or being grown in their gardens.ResultsA total of 260 plant species were reported, of which, 53 were utilized for different ethnomedicinal applications. These 53 species were represented by 35 families and 45 genera. Most of these ethnomedicinal species were woody perennials (37.73%). Cocus nucifera dominated the list with highest number of use followed by Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The use value of the species varied from 0.006 to 0.53, while the fidelity value (%) ranged from 2.29 to 93.75%. The leaves of the plants were mostly used for ethnomedicinal applications (19 species) followed by fruits (12 species) and bark (9 species), and the least was the root (7 species). We documented 20 different ailments/diseases cured by using these plants. In some cases, more than one species are used to cure a disease or ailment. As many as 10 species were used to cure only stomach-related problems. Some more diseases like cough and cold and jaundice were treated using six and four species, respectively.ConclusionThis documented list of 260 plant species including 53 ethnomedicinal ones from the home gardens of the study area indicates that these gardens are key in maintaining diversity and source of healthcare system in agricultural dominant landscape. Documenting such ecological status and traditional applications becomes a prerequisite for developing conservation and management strategies of home gardens to be included in the mainstream conservation processes.

Project description:The Tianshan Mountains, located in arid Central Asia, have a humid climate and are biodiversity hotspots. Here, we aimed to clarify whether the pattern of species diversity and the phylogenetic structure of plant communities is affected by environmental variables and glacial refugia. In this study, plant community assemblies of 17 research sites with a total of 35 sample plots were investigated at the grassland/woodland boundaries on the Tianshan Mountains. Community phylogeny of these plant communities was constructed based on two plant DNA barcode regions. The indices of phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic community structure were calculated for these sample plots. We first estimated the correlation coefficients between species richness (SR) and environmental variables as well as the presence of glacial refugia. We then mapped the significant values of indices of community phylogeny (PD, RPD, NRI, and NTI) to investigate the correlation between community phylogeny and environmental structure or macrozones in the study area. The results showed that a significantly higher value of SR was obtained for the refugial groups than for the colonizing groups (P < 0.05); presence of refugia and environmental variables were highly correlated to the pattern of variation in SR. Indices of community phylogeny were not significantly different between refugial and colonizing regions. Comparison with the humid western part showed that plant communities in the arid eastern part of the Tianshan Mountains tended to display more significant phylogenetic overdispersion. The variation tendency of the PhyloSor index showed that the increase in macro-geographical and environmental distance did not influence obvious phylogenetic dissimilarities between different sample plots. In conclusion, glacial refugia and environmental factors profoundly influenced the pattern of SR, but community phylogenetic structure was not affected by glacial refugia among different plant communities on the Tianshan Mountains. This pattern of community phylogenetic structure could have resulted from shared ancestry and species pool among these sample plots.

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Home gardens of Central Asia: Reservoirs of diversity of fruit and nut tree species.

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