Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an important crop in the high-altitude regions of the Northwest Indian Himalayas. The agro-climatic heterogeneity of this region offers a great deal of diversity in the agro-morphology of buckwheat species. In this study, a total of 61 accessions of Fagopyrum esculentum and Fagopyrum tataricum were characterized for 17 morphological (8 qualitative and 9 quantitative) traits. Significant differences (P < 0.0001) among all the traits were revealed by one-way analysis of variance. Further, significant phenotypic variability in both qualitative as well as quantitative traits was also observed. Both positive and negative correlations were observed between the traits of agronomic relevance. The principal component analysis (PCA) reveals about 69% variability among the first six components. The accessions were divided into two key clusters with numerous subclusters by considering the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram. A cluster of 19 accessions was formed utilizing a PCA scatter plot indicating accessions with maximum values for important quality traits like plant height, leaf blade width, stem colour (red), primary branches, inflorescence length, flower colour (greenish-yellow), seed anthocyanin colour (green), seed shape (ovate) and seed weight. These accessions can be of vital significance for future buckwheat breeding programmes. The findings from the current study will form a favourable base for genetic resource management, improved cultivation and applications of buckwheat at the commercial level in the northwestern Himalayas of India.

White Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) is indigenous to West Africa, a region that harbours the crop's tremendous landrace diversity. The knowledge and understanding of local cultivars’ genetic diversity are essential for properly managing genetic resources, conservation, sustainable use and their improvement through breeding. This study aimed to dissect phenotypic and molecular diversity of white yam cultivars from Benin using agro-morphological and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Eighty-eight Beninese white Guinea yam cultivars collected through a countrywide ethnobotanical survey were phenotyped with 53 traits and genotyped with 9725 DArT-SNP. Multivariate analysis using phenotypic traits revealed 30 traits as most discriminative and explained up to 80.78% of cultivars’ phenotypic variation. Assessment of diversity indices such as Shannon–Wiener (H′), inverse Shannon (H.B.), Simpson's (λ) index and Pilou evenness (J) based molecular and phenotypic data depicted a moderate genetic diversity in Beninese white Guinea yam cultivars. Genetic differentiation of cultivars among country production zones was low due to the high exchange of planting materials among farmers of different regions. However, there was high genetic diversity within regions. Hierarchical clusters (HCs) on phenotypic data revealed the presence of two groups while HCs based on the SNP markers and the combined analysis identified three genetic groups. Our result provided valuable insights into the Beninese white Guinea yam diversity for its proper conservation and improvement through breeding.

Ecological data indicate that as the amount of precipitation in an arid areas increases, so too does mammalian taxonomic richness. This correspondence has been found in two late-Quaternary mammalian faunas from Utah, one from Homestead Cave in the Bonneville Basin. We use the remains of two species of woodrat (Neotoma cinerea and Neotoma lepida) from Homestead Cave to test the hypothesis that as the amount of precipitation in an arid area increases, so too does morphological diversity within individual mammalian taxa. Morphological diversity is measured as corrected coefficients of variation and as richness of size classes of mandibular alveolar lengths. Coefficients of variation for N. cinerea are few and coincide with moisture history if temporally successive small samples are lumped together. More abundant coefficients of variation for N. lepida coincide only loosely with moisture history, likely because such coefficients measure dispersion but not necessarily other aspects of variation. Richness of size classes of N. lepida is high during the early and late Holocene when moisture was high, and lowest during the middle Holocene when climate was most arid.

This study reports the morphometric relationships and relative growth of 20 uncommon bivalve species collected along the Algarve coast (southern Portugal). Morphometric relationships were established between three linear variables (shell length, height and width) and one ponderal variable (total weight) and the relative growth between variables (isometry vs allometry) was analysed in order to assess their variation throughout ontogeny. In addition, morphometric indices (elongation, compactness, convexity and density) based on ratios of those linear and ponderal variables were calculated in order to further characterize morphologically the bivalve species. A total of 2512 individuals belonging to nine bivalve families were analysed, comprising specimens with broad ranges in both shell length (11.8–109.0 mm SL) and total weight (0.2–354.6 g TW). All morphometric relationships were highly significant (P < 0.001) and displayed invariably high correlation coefficients (r = 0.727–0.998). Among a total of 60 morphometric relationships, 27 isometries, 25 positive allometries and 8 negative allometries were registered. The morphometric indices displayed a remarkable variation among taxa, reflecting the high morphological diversity of these miscellaneous bivalve species. Discriminant analysis provided a spatial visualization of the species morphometric variables that further evidenced their main shape features, the distinctness between some species and families (e.g. Pharidae and Cardiidae) and the morphological resemblance among some species belonging to other families (e.g. Veneridae and Tellinidae). Overall, this information is useful and has practical application in diverse research fields, including studies on systematics and taxonomy, physiology, biology, ecology, fisheries assessment and management.

Identification and characterization of the farmers’ named crop varieties cultivated around the world is a major issue for conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources. Intraspecific diversity is strongly determined by farmers’ socio-cultural environment, but this has little been documented. In this paper, we tested, on a contact zone among three ethnolinguistic groups located on the Mount Kenya region, whether farmers’ socio-cultural differences have an impact on the morphological characteristics of the farmers’ named sorghum varieties. Eighteen qualitative morphological traits of the panicles were measured. We first compared the morphological diversity of the named varieties among ethnolinguistic groups using multivariate analysis of homogeneity of groups’ dispersion and tested their differentiation using permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Discriminant analysis of principal components was then used to categorize the morphological diversity without a priori, and this classification was compared with farmers’ local taxonomy (vernacular names) in the three ethnolinguistic groups. Our results show that some morphotypes are peculiar to some ethnolinguistic groups and that a morphotype can bear different variety names while the same variety name can be used to identify different morphotypes. Morphological differentiation that was explained by ethnolinguistic groups was higher for local landraces than for improved varieties. Our findings imply that socio-cultural diversity of farmers and the criteria they use to identify and maintain landraces need to be considered in studying and sampling crop diversity for in situ as well as for ex situ conservation.

Although sponges constitute the dominant animal group in marine caves globally, few studies have investigated quantitatively their diversity patterns in this habitat. Regarding Mediterranean marine caves, data describing the structure and diversity gradients of sponge assemblages are available for the north-western basin, while information for the eastern Mediterranean is almost inexistent. In this study, the sponge assemblages in two Aegean marine caves (eastern Mediterranean Sea) with different topography were examined using a non-destructive method. In each cave, three quadrats (25 × 25 cm) were photographed at 5 m intervals, along three transects: one along the ceiling and two along the opposite walls. Per cent coverage for each sponge species was calculated using advanced image processing software. Our analyses revealed a rich sponge assemblage, which consisted of 50 species assigned to eight growth forms. Resemblance analysis for the surveyed caves revealed two major groups of samples corresponding to the shadowy outer and the darker internal cave sectors. However, differences in species composition as well as divergent spatial patterns of species richness, Shannon–Wiener diversity and morphological diversity were found not only between the caves but also between different transects within each cave. Sponge morphological diversity presented significant positive correlation with species richness and Shannon–Wiener diversity in both caves, suggesting that it could possibly be used as a surrogate measure for describing sponge diversity gradients in Mediterranean caves. Cave topography was found to have a significant effect on the observed diversity patterns and assemblage structure, highlighting the high level of individuality in these unique habitats.

India is the second most populous nation in the world after China, and its plant genetic resources are an important basis for crop improvement to meet human population needs. An important legume in the diet of the Indian population is common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Common beans are one of the many important legumes grown in India, but unlike others, its centre of origin is not in Asia but in the Americas. The objective of this study was to evaluate two collections of Indian common beans: one for an internationally available collection of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-protected accessions and one from the north-western Himalayan region. In total, 149 Indian landraces were evaluated with a total of 24 microsatellites across the two collections, and these represented all common bean-growing states of India. A population structure analysis was used to find groups in each collection, and this was compared across the collections. The genetic analysis of the two sets of Indian accessions with neighbour-joining trees and principal component analysis categorized the landraces into Andean and Mesoamerican gene pool groups. The Andean genotypes dominated the north-western Himalayan collection while the FAO-protected accessions were predominantly Mesoamerican. The Indian subcontinent can be considered as a region of high bean diversity; however, very little introgression was observed between the gene pools in both the germplasm sets. Gene pool identity was further substantiated by the comparison of seed traits, particularly seed size. The role of the landraces in plant breeding programmes is discussed.

Using standard survey approaches, we carried out a nationwide survey to morphologically characterize and identify ecozones of Ethiopian horse populations. Accordingly, we explored one new feral horse population previously unreported and seven other distinct horse populations. A total of 17 selected morphological variables were recorded on 503 horses (293 stallions and 210 mares) that belong to five out of eight identified horse populations. Pair-wise multiple mean comparisons (PMMC) using one-way analysis of variance and multivariate analyses were performed separately for each sex and least-squares means was used in the case of aggregated sexes. Results of PMMC showed that there were significant differences (P < 0.05) between the means for most of the variables recorded. Principal component analysis showed that height at wither, height at back, height at rump, body length, back length and barrel length jointly account for about 80 percent of the variations. All squared Mahalanobis distance between populations were significant (P < 0.01). The greatest phenotypic divergence was observed between Bale and Selale horse populations and the least phenotypic divergence was between Horro and Kafa populations. Canonical discriminant function analysis showed that 77.05 percent of individuals were correctly categorized into their respective populations. Moreover, cluster analysis based on squared Mahalanobis distances grouped the five measured Ethiopian horse populations into three major breed groups and five distinct horse populations.

Spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb. ex Willd.) is a highly nutritious and underutilized vegetable containing high amount of protein as compared to other cucurbitaceous vegetables. Twenty-six accessions of spine gourd (M. dioica Roxb.), collected from eastern India, were evaluated to study the diversity and other genetic parameters. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters indicated that selection can be done on the basis of phenotype alone. On the basis of cluster analysis, spine gourd accessions can be categorized into three distinct groups. The accessions of spine gourd from eastern India showed an immense variation and can be used as a potential source of germplasm for crop improvement. The results presented here on nature and magnitude of genetic variability and diversity existing in this species will provide the foundation for designing an efficient spine gourd breeding programme. As spine gourd is distributed widely almost throughout India, further collections from Peninsular and Western India are suggested for maximum diversity sampling.