Traditional varieties are doing extinct day by day in the race of high yielding varieties. Many indigenous varieties were cultivated past 20 – 50 years. How will allow again the traditional varieties in the situation of climate change? Human diet diversity was played pivotal role during forefather’s life or before 50 years past. Would it be right to say that the native varieties helped to increase immunity? In todays’ situation every person is ready to do something to increase immunity. If today we had food made with native varieties in our plate, then we would not have to run for immunity?
#Climate Change #Food diversity #Immunity #Traditional Varieties
Modern hybrids are bred mostly for high yield.
The nutritional components are not given much attention.
In addition the soils which used by humanity have lost great portion of the original organic matter compromising their ability to provide nutrients from the soil water which is greatly enhanced in optimized soil organic matter soils.
The humic portions work as extracts to enhance the plant immunity response working as growth regulators.
Applications of pesticides work to compromise the natural biological stimulation of the plant and animal immunity systems
Plants which can thrive in natural settings are natural stimulation of health.
Currently vitamin D is deficient in about 90% of young ladies in developed North America this can be traced to largely indoor lives that do not permit the sunlight to stimulate vitamin D which is critical to immune response. Our artificial life styles where diets are poor there is lack of outdoor activity and the food sources are based on few grains too much refined products and excesses of salt and fats can lead to decided poor health. Obesity global epidemic is related to increased mortality of corona virus as poor health compromises the abil8ty of the immune system to fight off the path9gen.
Nutrient dilution and climate cycles underlie declines in a dominant insect herbivore
View ORCID ProfileEllen A. R. Welti, View ORCID ProfileKarl A. Roeder, View ORCID ProfileKirsten M. de Beurs, Anthony Joern, and View ORCID ProfileMichael KaspariPNAS March 31, 2020 117 (13) 7271-7275; first published March 9, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920012117
This article has a Correction. Please see:
- Correction to Supporting Information for Welti et al., Nutrient dilution and climate cycles underlie declines in a dominant insect herbivore - May 18, 2020
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Significance
Parsing variation in long-term patterns underlying insect abundances and assigning mechanisms are critical in light of recent reports of dramatic insect declines. Grasshopper abundances in a North American prairie exhibited both 5-y cycles and >2%/y declines over the past 20 y. Large-scale climate oscillations predicted the cycles in grasshopper abundances. Moreover, plant biomass doubled over the same period—likely due to changes in climate and increasing atmospheric CO2—diluting the concentrations in plant tissue of key nutrients which in turn predicted the declines of a dominant herbivore. Nutrient dilution, like CO2 enrichment, is likely a global phenomenon, posing a challenge to Earth’s herbivore populations.
Abstract
Evidence for global insect declines mounts, increasing our need to understand underlying mechanisms. We test the nutrient dilution (ND) hypothesis—the decreasing concentration of essential dietary minerals with increasing plant productivity—that particularly targets insect herbivores. Nutrient dilution can result from increased plant biomass due to climate or CO2 enrichment. Additionally, when considering long-term trends driven by climate, one must account for large-scale oscillations including El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). We combine long-term datasets of grasshopper abundance, climate, plant biomass, and end-of-season foliar elemental content to examine potential drivers of abundance cycles and trends of this dominant herbivore. Annual grasshopper abundances in 16- and 22-y time series from a Kansas prairie revealed both 5-y cycles and declines of 2.1–2.7%/y. Climate cycle indices of spring ENSO, summer NAO, and winter or spring PDO accounted for 40–54% of the variation in grasshopper abundance, mediated by effects of weather and host plants. Consistent with ND, grass biomass doubled and foliar concentrations of N, P, K, and Na—nutrients which limit grasshopper abundance—declined over the same period. The decline in plant nutrients accounted for 25% of the variation in grasshopper abundance over two decades. Thus a warming, wetter, more CO2-enriched world will likely contribute to declines in insect herbivores by depleting nutrients from their already nutrient-poor diet. Unlike other potential drivers of insect declines—habitat loss, light and chemical pollution—ND may be widespread in remaining natural areas.
- insect decline
- global change
- grasshopper
- Acrididae
- grassland
Only remarkable point is suitability of food depending on weather conditions and people get adjusted with weather and food available.
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