This lecture course examines the relationships between plants and people, how people have altered plants, how plants have influenced the development of human societies, and how those relationships have changed through time. The lectures focus particularly on the origins of agriculture - the transition from foraging to farming - which marked a turning point in the history of the world with far-reaching impacts on human societies and natural environments. The biological and genetic bases of crop and livestock evolution and domestication are explored and discussed in detail. The lectures are illustrated with a global panorama of case studies on the origins of New and Old World crops that are crucial for modern food security, and which have played a role in shaping human society. The lectures also touch on topical issues surrounding what we eat today, including modern crop breeding and food security, technologies used to domesticate, modify and generate new crops, erosion and conservation of crop genetic resources, and utilization of lesser-known crops.
BIO 235_Lecture-Notes text
- Plant domestication definition, need for global food security, importance of plants, plants that changed the world: Potato, Coca, Sugarcane.
BIO235 Lecture 1 Introduction.pdf (9,83 mb)
- Origins of agriculture, archaic foraging diet, (independent) geographical centers of plant domestication: Mesoamerica, Andes, Fertile Crescent, New Guinea, especially cereals (grasses) and pulses (legumes), origins of animal domestications, oldest is bottle gourd, Eastern N. America: sunflower.
BIO 235 Lecture 2 Origins of Agriculture.pdf (5,17 mb)
- Reason for simultaneous independent rise of agriculture in different places, archaeology, origins and domestication of various cereals= grasses: maize (corn), wheat, Asian rice, African rice, Neotropical rice of S. America, global consumption. Origins of chili pepper.
BIO235 Lecture 3 Crop Origins.pdf (8,15 mb)
BIO 235 Lecture 4 - How were crops domesticated.pdf (6,26 mb)
BIO 235 Lecture 5 - Hybridization polyploidy and crop domestication 1.pdf (10,32 mb)
Strawberry, wheat, banana, potato, sugarcane, oilseed rape (canola)
BIO235 Lecture 6 Hybrids Polyploids Crop Domestication 2.pdf (6,91 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 7 - Lost Crops of the Incas.pdf (15,11 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 8 - Revolution vs Evolution - the tempo of domestciation.pdf (7,72 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 9 - Cattle pigs goats.pdf (7,10 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 10 Crop Genetic Resources.pdf (12,19 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 11 - What do we Eat Today.pdf (9,32 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 12 - Guns Germs and Steel.pdf (7,24 mb)
BIO235 Lecture 13 - Modern Food Production.pdf (11,40 mb)