![]() ![]() Moreover, pesticides and agriculture-induced habitat loss are collapsing pollinator populations, as well as beneficial insects that control damaging crop pests. Declines of 20–50% in vertebrate, invertebrate and plant species richness follow conversion of natural habitats to cropland and pasture. Unsurprisingly, the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity and ecosystem services have been severe. Agriculture is also responsible for 30–35% of global carbon emissions, 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and a 500% increase in global fertilizer use over the past 50 years. Now encompassing approximately 40% of Earth's land surface, agriculture has replaced the majority of Earth's grasslands, savannahs and vast swathes of forest. At the same time, it is hard to overstate agriculture's ecological impact. Innovations in agriculture over the past decades have led to remarkable increases in food production that have helped sustain our growing human population. Finally, we highlight knowledge gaps and future directions. We then categorize three non-exclusive processes by which wild species evolve in response to agriculture-adaptation to domesticated species, adaptation to agricultural practices and changes in gene flow-and discuss their broader eco-evolutionary and sociological impacts. Here, we explore reciprocal feedback between agriculture-induced ecological and evolutionary changes by addressing two important questions: (i) How do agricultural practices and evolution of domesticated species drive evolutionary changes in wild species? and (ii) What are the ecological and societal consequences of these evolutionary changes? To address these questions, we first briefly review the ecological impacts of agriculture. Thus, when examining the evolutionary impacts of agriculture on wild species, we must consider the joint impact of agricultural practices and evolution of domesticated species. breeding high yielding varieties with weak pest resistance). breeding stress tolerant varieties), and altering resources needed for production (e.g. higher densities due to the evolution of erect crop structure), allowing expansion into previously unfavourable habitats (e.g. Evolutionary changes in domesticated species not only increase yields but can also alter the impacts of agriculture by enabling further intensification (e.g. Agricultural practices, including classical breeding and genetic engineering, as well as natural selection during cultivation and rearing, have driven rapid evolutionary changes in domesticated plants and animals. The impacts of agriculture on wild species ultimately stem from two interdependent forces: direct impacts of agricultural practices (tillage, land use change, pesticides, etc.) and indirect impacts arising from evolutionary changes that occur in domesticated species. Understanding these impacts is crucial for the proper development and implementation of sustainable agricultural practices. Yet, agriculture causes significant ecological and evolutionary impacts on wild species and ecosystem processes. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Human influences on evolution, and the ecological and societal consequences’.Īgricultural development has been one of humanity's most important endeavours. We finish by identifying important knowledge gaps and future directions related to the eco-evolutionary impacts of agriculture including their extent, how to prevent the detrimental evolution of wild species, and finally, how to use evolution to minimize the ecological impacts of agriculture. We review evidence for these processes and then discuss their ecological and sociological impacts. Third, agriculture can cause non-selective changes in patterns of gene flow in wild species. Second, selection caused by agricultural practices, including both those meant to maximize productivity and those meant to control pest species, can lead to pest adaptation. First, differences in the traits of domesticated species, compared with their wild ancestors, alter the selective environment and create opportunities for wild species to specialize. We do so by examining three processes by which agriculture drives evolution. Here, we explore how agricultural practices and evolutionary changes in domesticated species cause evolution in wild species. ![]() However, the various mechanisms of agriculture-induced evolution and their socio-ecological consequences are not often synthetically discussed. Agriculture is a dominant evolutionary force that drives the evolution of both domesticated and wild species.
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