Late Quaternary vegetation responses in the Middle East: the influence of climate and land-use on crop domestication
Today, climate change is the most pressing global issue. Its influence on the physical environment, ecosystems, and their interactions with the human population is undeniably visible now, and their consequences are deeply pervasive. The varying seasons and changing climate patterns threaten to disrupt the agricultural industry, which jeopardizes global food security. However, while anthropogenic climate change is occurring at unparalleled rates, plants have been exposed to changes in climate throughout history. Understanding how plants have responded to previous changes in the environment provides valuable insight into how they will respond in the present day.
Humans have played a major part in the rise of climate change, but they can also be part of the solution. The large-scale, international AEGIS (Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability) project is an effort that is aiming to build a more sustainable and secure food production system while also preserving biodiversity in cropping systems under climate change. In order to accomplish this, it is essential to explore past changes in crop occurrence and their persistence in response to climate change and human activity. This research, which is embedded within AEGIS, seeks to reconstruct and examine the climate and environment of the Middle East, analyze plant responses to climate change, and contextualize how climate and associated changes in agricultural practices such as plant domestication and land-use changes influenced vegetation responses. Wheat, barley, and rye, crops which have been shown to historically exist in this region, will be a primary focus. Molecular proxies, namely methyl-branched tetraether lipids produced by soil bacteria and stable hydrogen and carbon isotopes of plant waxes, will be used to reconstruct past continental temperatures and the hydrological cycle and water availability, respectively. Further, a targeted and non-targeted lipid analysis of crop and sediment samples across the Middle East will be performed and combined with sedimentary ancient DNA (aDNA) data generated in the AEGIS project in order to identify species and community responses to climatic stress factors. The results of this research will contribute to the growing body of work that is attempting to address the critical threat that climate change poses to human food security and innovate sustainable agricultural practices.
