Population growth in the next few decades will increase the need for food production, while the yields of major food crops could be impacted by the changing climate and changing threats from pests and pathogens. Crop breeding, both through conventional techniques, and GM assisted breeding could help meet these challenges, if adequately supported by appropriate information on the future climate. We highlight some of the major challenges for crop breeders and growers in the coming decades, and describe the main characteristics of crop breeding techniques and other adaptation options for agriculture. We review recent uses of climate information to support crop breeding decisions and make recommendations for how this might be improved. We conclude that there is significant potential for breeders to work more closely with climate scientists and crop modellers in order to address the challenges of climate change. It is not yet clear how climate information can best be used. Fruitful areas of investigation include: provision of climate information to identify key target breeding traits and develop improved success criteria (e.g. for heat/drought stress); identification of those conditions under which multiple stress factors (for example, heat stress, mid-season drought stress, flowering drought stress, terminal drought stress) are important in breeding programmes; use of climate information to inform selection of trial sites; identification of the range of environments and locations under which crop trials should be performed (likely to be a wider range of environments than done at present); identification of appropriate duration of trials (likely to be longer than current trials, due to the importance of capturing extreme events); and definition of appropriate methods for incorporating climate information into crop breeding programmes, depending on the specific needs of the breeding programme and the strengths and weaknesses of available approaches. Better knowledge is needed on climate-related thresholds important to crop breeders, for example on the frequency and severity of extreme climate events relevant to the product profile, or to help provide tailored climate analyses (particularly for extreme events). The uncertainties inherent in climate and impact projections provide a particular challenge for translating climate science into actionable outcomes for agriculture. Further work is needed to explore relevant social and economic assumptions such as the level and distribution of real incomes, changing consumption patterns, health impacts, impacts on markets and trade, and the impact of legislation relating to conservation, the environment and climate change.
Nutrition during early mammalian development permanently influences health of the adult, including increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying such programming are poorly defined. Here we demonstrate that programmed changes in miRNA expression link early-life nutrition to long-term health. Specifically, we show that miR-483-3p is upregulated in adipose tissue from low-birth-weight adult humans and prediabetic adult rats exposed to suboptimal nutrition in early life. We demonstrate that manipulation of miR-483-3p levels in vitro substantially modulates the capacity of adipocytes to differentiate and store lipids. We show that some of these effects are mediated by translational repression of growth/differentiation factor-3, a target of miR-483-3p. We propose that increased miR-483-3p expression in vivo, programmed by early-life nutrition, limits storage of lipids in adipose tissue, causing lipotoxicity and insulin resistance and thus increasing susceptibility to metabolic disease. ; This work was funded by the BBSRC (project grants BB/F-15364/1 and BB/F-14279/1). SEO is a British Heart Foundation Senior Fellow (FS/09/029/27902), MB is an MRC Senior Fellow and AEW is a BBSRC Professorial Fellow. KS and SEO are members of the MRC Centre for Obesity and Related Metabolic Diseases (MRC-CORD), which also provided a studentship for MW. KS is a member of the European Union COST Action BM0602.
The European Red List is a review of the conservation status of European species according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level, so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This Red List publication summarises results for all hitherto described native European Orthoptera species (grasshoppers, crickets and bush-crickets). All Orthoptera species (grasshoppers, crickets and bushcrickets) native to or naturalised in Europe before AD 1500 (a total of 1,082 species), have been assessed in this Red List. The geographical scope is continent-wide, extending from Iceland in the west to the Urals in the east, and from Franz Josef Land in the north to the Canary Islands in the south. The Caucasus region is not included. Red List assessments were made at two regional levels: for geographical Europe, and for the 28 Member States of the European Union in 2016. The status of all species was assessed using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (IUCN 2012a), which is the world's most widely accepted system for measuring extinction risk. All assessments followed the Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels (IUCN 2012b). The assessments were compiled based on the data and knowledge from a network of leading European experts on Orthoptera. The assessments were then completed and reviewed at six workshops held in Italy, Greece, France, Bulgaria, Spain and Germany as well as through email correspondence with relevant experts. More than 145 experts participated in the assessment and review process for European Orthoptera species. Assessments are available on the European Red List website and data portal: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/ conservation/species/redlist and http://www.iucnredlist. org/initiatives/europe. Overall, 25.7% and 28% of Orthoptera species are assessed as threatened at the European and EU 28 levels, respectively. However, the exact proportion of threatened species is uncertain, as there are 107 (10%) Data Deficient (DD) species in Europe and 84 DD species (8.5%) in the EU 28. Estimating that a similar relative proportion of the DD assessments are likely to be threatened (IUCN 2011), the best estimate of the threatened share of Orthoptera species is thus 28.5% in Europe and 30.6% in the EU 28. Further research on DD species to clarify their status is therefore critical. A further 13.9% (149 species) and 13% (128 species) are considered Near Threatened in Europe and in the EU 28, respectively. By comparison, the best estimate of threatened species of those other groups that have been assessed comprehensively in Europe is 58% of freshwater molluscs, 40% of freshwater fishes, 23% of amphibians, 20% of reptiles, 17% of mammals, 16% of dragonflies, 13% of birds, 9% of butterflies and bees, 8% of aquatic plants and marine fishes and 2% of medicinal plants (IUCN 2015). Additional European Red Lists assessing a selection of species showed that 22% of terrestrial molluscs, 16% of crop wild relatives and 15% of saproxylic beetles are also threatened (IUCN 2015). No other groups have yet been assessed at the European level. Looking at the population trends of European Orthoptera species, 30.2% (325 species) have declining populations, 7.6% (82 species) are believed to be more or less stable and 3.2% (34 species) are increasing. However, the population trends for the majority of species (59%, 634 species) remain unknown. Out of the 739 species that are endemic to Europe (i.e., they are found nowhere else in the world), 231 (31.3%) are threatened, highlighting the responsibility that European countries have to protect the global populations of these species. Overall, the European areas with the highest diversity of species are found in southern Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region and the Balkans. Hotspots of endemic species are found in the Iberian, the Italian and the Balkan Peninsulas, and in some large mountain areas (the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians and Appenines). The greatest concentration of threatened species is found along some Mediterranean coasts and Mediterranean mountain blocks. Finally, the number of Data Deficient species reflects the general distribution of Orthoptera species, being highest in the Mediterranean and the Lower Volga region in southern European Russia. The main threat to European Orthoptera is the loss, degradation and fragmentation of their habitats as a consequence of agricultural land use intensification. This includes direct destruction by transformation of permanent grassland or shrubland habitats into cropland, degradation of habitat quality caused by overgrazing, abandonment, use of fertilisers or heavy machinery and direct mortality from frequent mowing or the use of pesticides. Other important threats to Orthoptera are the increasing frequency of wildfires, touristic development and urbanisation, climate change, afforestation and intensive forest management, drainage and river regulations, recreational activities, deforestation, limestone quarrying and sand excavations and invasive species.Orthoptera are a diverse group of insects with more than 1,000 species known to occur in Europe and play important roles in the ecosystem such as being part of the food chain and prey to many vertebrate species. They are also good indicators of land use intensity, which makes them one of the most important invertebrate groups for environmental monitoring and assessment. Conservation strategies for the European Orthoptera species with the highest extinction risk should be developed and implemented. The European Red List should be used to inform nature and biodiversity policies to improve the status of threatened species. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should be enhanced by promoting traditional low-intensity agricultural land use systems, particularly pastoralism in Europe, and committing to a long-term reduction in the use of pesticides and fertilisers, encouraging the uptake of alternative pest management. Orthoptera species should be made a standard group for inclusion in Environmental Impact Assessments to avoid negative impacts of new development projects on threatened species.Degraded habitats of threatened Orthoptera species throughout Europe should be restored and guidelines for the optimal management of Orthoptera habitats should be developed. The protection of Orthoptera habitats throughout Europe should be improved, so that each threatened and endemic European species is present in at least one protected area with an adequate adaptive management scheme and monitoring for threatened Orthoptera species. Orthoptera inventories in protected areas should be made mandatory to identify priority species for the respective area and develop strategies for their protection. A pan-European monitoring programme for Orthoptera species should be developed, by merging all existing recording schemes. Specific research on those species that have not been recently recorded in Europe to clarify if they may be Extinct or Regionally Extinct, or have been assessed as Data Deficient should be conducted and funding mechanisms should be put in place to support this research. The effects of the lesser understood threats (e.g., wildfires, pesticides, climate change) on Orthoptera should be studied. The European Red List of Grasshoppers, Crickets and Bush-crickets should be revised at regular intervals of ten years, and whenever new data becomes available.
