Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The recent development of ideas on biodiversity conservation was already being considered almost three-quarters of a century ago for crop plants and the wild species related to them, by the Russian geneticist N.!. Vavilov. He was undoubtedly the first scientist to understand the impor­ tance for humankind of conserving for utilization the genetic diversity of our ancient crop plants and their wild relatives from their centres of diversity. His collections showed various traits of adaptation to environ­ mental extremes and biotypes of crop diseases and pests which were unknown to most plant breeders in the first quarter of the twentieth cen­ tury. Later, in the 1940s-1960s scientists began to realize that the pool of genetic diversity known to Vavilov and his colleagues was beginning to disappear. Through the replacement of the old, primitive and highly diverse land races by uniform modem varieties created by plant breed­ ers, the crop gene pool was being eroded. The genetic diversity of wild species was equally being threatened by human activities: over-exploita­ tion, habitat destruction or fragmentation, competition resulting from the introduction of alien species or varieties, changes and intensification of land use, environmental pollution and possible climate change.

574.472 --- 575.17 --- 502.753 --- 574.472 Biodiversity --- Biodiversity --- 502.753 Protection of individual plant species from extinction, extermination --- Protection of individual plant species from extinction, extermination --- 575.17 Population genetics. Genetic processes in populations --- Population genetics. Genetic processes in populations --- plant population --- genetic resources --- Resource conservation --- Germplasm resources, Plant --- Conservation of plant genetic resources --- Conservation of plant germplasm resources --- Plant genetic resources --- Plant germplasm resources --- Plants, Cultivated --- Germplasm resources --- Germplasm resources, Plant. --- Germplasm resources [Plant ] --- Plant ecology. --- Evolutionary biology. --- Human genetics. --- Plant science. --- Botany. --- Plant Ecology. --- Evolutionary Biology. --- Human Genetics. --- Plant Sciences. --- Botanical science --- Phytobiology --- Phytography --- Phytology --- Plant biology --- Plant science --- Biology --- Natural history --- Plants --- Genetics --- Heredity, Human --- Human biology --- Physical anthropology --- Animal evolution --- Animals --- Biological evolution --- Darwinism --- Evolutionary biology --- Evolutionary science --- Origin of species --- Evolution --- Biological fitness --- Homoplasy --- Natural selection --- Phylogeny --- Botany --- Phytoecology --- Vegetation ecology --- Ecology --- Floristic botany --- Floristic ecology --- Crops --- Management. --- Agricultural crops --- Crop plants --- Farm crops --- Industrial crops --- Farm produce --- Agronomy --- Crop science --- Plant products