Applied Mathematics and Omics to Assess Crop Genetic Resources for Climate Change Adaptive Traits

Applied Mathematics and Omics to Assess Crop Genetic Resources for Climate Change Adaptive Traits focuses on practical means and approaches to further the use of genetic resources for mitigating the effects of climate change and improving crop production. Genetic diversity in crop plants is being further explored to increase yield, disease resistance, and nutritional value by employing recent advances in mathematics and omics technologies to promote the adaptation of crops to changing climatic conditions.

This book presents a broad view of biodiversity and genetic resources in agriculture and provides answers to some current problems. It also highlights ways to provide much-needed information to practitioners and innovators engaged in addressing the effects of global climate change on agriculture. The book is divided into sections that cover:

• The implications of climate change for drylands and farming communities
• The potential of genetic resources and biodiversity to adapt to and mitigate climate change effects
• Applications of mathematics and omics technologies
• Genomics and gene identification

We are in the midst of significant changes in global climates, and its effects are already being felt throughout the world. The increasing frequency of droughts and heat waves has had negative impacts on agricultural production, especially in the drylands of the world. This book shares the collective knowledge of leading scientists and practitioners, giving readers a broader appreciation and heightened awareness of the stakes involved in improving and sustaining agricultural production systems in the face of climate change.

Abdallah Bari is a researcher focusing on applied mathematics in agricultural research. He received his PhD in imaging techniques to assess genetic variation for water-use efficiency from the University of Cordoba, Spain. His research involves elaborating and applying mathematical models and theoretical aspects to seek practical solutions, such as the application of fractal geometry to capture complex trait variation in plants. He has published peer-reviewed articles and chapters and has edited a book on the assessment of genetic resources for water-use efficiency. He collaborates with researchers from universities, research institutions, and development organizations to explore new frontiers of applied mathematics in agricultural research to address climate change issues.

Ardeshir B. Damania is an associate in the Agricultural Experimental Station (AES) at the University of California, Davis. He received his PhD in crop plant genetic resources from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. His current research interests include climate change, biodiversity conservation, origins of agriculture, crop domestication, and plants of economic and medicinal values. He has edited a number of books, including Biodiversity and Wheat Improvement, which has been translated into Chinese. He has authored numerous papers in refereed international journals and articles in the popular press on wheat improvement, conservation of genetic resources, and Asian agricultural history.

Michael Mackay is an honorary associate professor at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, an institute based at the University of Queensland, St. Lucia in Brisbane, Australia. He received his PhD from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. His main research interest is in how pre-breeders and breeders actually go about identifying and using plant genetic resources. This research eventually led to the development of a different approach known as Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) in a collaborative Grains Research and Development Corporation project between ICARDA, the AWCC, and the N. I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has published more than 40 articles, including book chapters, refereed scientific papers, and conference proceedings.

Selvadurai Dayanandan is a professor and graduate program director in the biology department of Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He received his PhD in biology from Boston University. He was director of the graduate diploma program in biotechnology and genomics at Concordia University as well as an Izaak W. Killam postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta. His current research focuses on understanding the origin and maintenance of biodiversity in forest and agricultural landscapes using genomics technologies. He has published extensively in the field of biodiversity conservation, ranging from socioeconomic factors and tropical deforestation through the population, conservation, and evolutionary genomics of forest trees and crop plants.