Editorial: Ecological Consequences of Biodiversity and Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry

With the increasing recognition of world population feeding and health, global climate change and biodiversity loss, and limited energy resources with fossil fuels calling for alternatives such as biomass crops, the relevance of agriculture, and forestry for human well-being in the future is more than evident. In this context, applications of biotechnological methods including genetic engineering, marker-assisted breeding, clonal propagation of elite trees, etc., are becoming very important, but are frequently debated in the public. Genetically modified organisms were first introduced into commercial agriculture more than two decades ago, and have often led to higher yields but also more flexible and efficient management strategies (Zilberman et al., 2010). Trait manipulation of target organisms and production system components also creates opportunities for improved products obtained with more effective resource utilization and reduced negative environmental impact. Nevertheless, manipulated traits may introduce unforeseen effects on ecological processes. Due to the complexity of agricultural and tree production systems and the different scales involved in the biological studies with genetically modified organisms on one hand and ecological studies targeting ecosystem processes on the other hand, trans-or inter-disciplinary approaches are often needed. The intention of this Research Topic was to highlight the need for integrated approaches in research activities and to bridge research progress within the areas of plant biology, ecology, and ecosystem science. Contributions deal with various aspects of crop/tree biotechnology and diversity for biomass, food and feed production and their ecological consequences. Important issues in using biotechnology in agriculture and forestry are for example to enhance productivity and stress resistance of crops and trees, mainly due to restricted land area and increasing environmental pressures, and to develop carbon dioxide-neutral production systems for sustainable production of fiber/biomass and biofuel with biotechnological methods (Polle et al., 2013; Polle and Chen, 2015). Along with the production issues, we need to conserve and protect natural diversity and species richness as a foundation of life on earth. With the recognition that increased plant diversity may also increase productivity, especially at low resource input (e.g., Weigelt et al., 2009), novel production systems combining aspects of diversity and biotechnology are emerging. Biotechnological methods are currently being developed to explore and make better use of the genetic diversity in important crops, as was reported by Nyaboga et al. for cassava cultivars often grown by farmers in east Africa. Pathogens are one of the biggest threats to crop production in many production systems, …