Abstract

This talk presents the application of the Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) methodology in an analytical framework developed to compare long-term dispersal patterns of domesticated plants in relation to their niche-forming processes. In particular, it focuses on the niche models for five historically significant crops in China: rice, millet, wheat, barley and buckwheat, used to infer the potential areas suitable for their cultivation from the Neolithic to the present. These case studies demonstrate how SDMs can support inferences about the interplay between environmental constraints and human niche construction in agricultural trajectories. Specifically, the presented approach relates observed patterns in climatic suitability and crop dispersal to different pathways to niche construction and distributional expansion. To arrive at niche construction pathways, it draws on the ecological niche theory, niche construction theory, cultural evolution and gene-culture co-evolutionary theory.

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