Harnessing evolution for more sustainable agriculture
As human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability. Darwinian Agriculture presents an entirely new approach to these challenges, one that draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection. R. Ford Denison shows how both biotechnology and traditional plant breeding can use Darwinian insights to identify promising routes for crop genetic improvement and avoid costly dead ends. Denison explains why plant traits that have been genetically optimized by individual selection--such as photosynthesis and drought tolerance--are bad candidates for genetic improvement. Traits like plant height and leaf angle, which determine the collective performance of plant communities, offer more room for improvement. Agriculturalists can also benefit from more sophisticated comparisons among natural communities and from the study of wild species in the landscapes where they evolved. Darwinian Agriculture reveals why it is sometimes better to slow or even reverse evolutionary trends when they are inconsistent with our present goals, and how we can glean new ideas from natural selection's marvelous innovations in wild species.
Автор: Richard G. Delisle Название: The Darwinian Tradition in Context ISBN: 331969121X ISBN-13(EAN): 9783319691213 Издательство: Springer Рейтинг: Цена: 23757.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание:
It is the main goal of this volume to put in context the Darwinian tradition by raising questions such as: How should it be defined? Did it interacted with other research programs? Where there any research programs whose developments were largely conducted independently of the Darwinian tradition? Contributors to this volume explicitly reflect upon the nature of the relationship between the Darwinian tradition and other research programs running in parallel.
In the wake of the Synthetic Theory of Evolution which was constituted in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, historians and philosophers of biology have devoted considerable attention to the Darwinian tradition, i.e., linking Charles Darwin to mid-Twentieth-Century developments in evolutionary biology. Since then, more recent developments in evolutionary biology challenged, in part only or entirely, the heritage of the Darwinian tradition. Expectedly, this was followed by a historiographical "recalibration" by historians and philosophers towards other research programs and traditions part of evolutionary biology since Darwin's time. In order to acknowledge this shift, papers have been arranged along two main threads:
Part I: The view that sees Darwinism as either originally pluralistic or acquiring such a pluralism through modifications and borrowings over time.
Part II: The view blurring the boundaries between non-darwinian and darwinian traditions, either by holding that Darwinism itself was never quite as darwinian as previously thought, or that non-darwinian traditions took on board some darwinian components, when not fertilizing Darwinism directly.
Between a Darwinism reaching out to other research programs and non-darwinian programs reaching out to Darwinism, the least that can be said is that this criss-crossing of intellectual threads blurs the historiographical field. This volume aims to open new thinking avenues about the development of evolutionary biology.
Автор: Gianquitto Tina, Fisher Lydia Название: America`s Darwin: Darwinian Theory and U.S. Culture ISBN: 0820346756 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780820346755 Издательство: Mare Nostrum (Eurospan) Рейтинг: Цена: 4019.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: While much has been written about the impact of Darwin`s theories on US culture, and scholarly collections have been devoted to the science of evolution, few have addressed Darwin`s theories as a cultural force affecting US writers. This book fills this gap, featuring critical approaches that examine US textual responses to Darwin`s works.
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