Dr Aaron P Davis
Senior Research Leader, Plant Resources
Biography
My role at Kew is Senior Research Leader of Plant Resources. The Plant Resources team investigates the value and use of plant diversity for provisioning humankind with key resources, including food, beverages, timber, fuels, fibres and medicines.
My research background is in taxonomy and systematics but I cover other areas, including climate change, resilience and sustainability. I work mainly on coffee (Coffea) with a regional focus on tropical Africa, Madagascar and Asia.
My main activity for 2015/16 is the project 'Building a climate resilient coffee economy for Ethiopia', which aims to improve the capacity of Ethiopia’s coffee sector to deal with climate change. This is a Strategic Climate Institutions Programme (SCIP) – SCIP Fund – project, backed by governments of the UK (DFID), Norway and Denmark.
Qualifications and appointments
- BSc (Hons), University of Reading, 1990
- PhD, University of Reading, 1994
- Technical Advisory Committee member for World Coffee Research (WCR)
Selected publications
Moat, J., Williams, J., Baena, S., Wilkinson, T., Gole, T.W., Challa, Z.K., Demissew, S., & Davis, A.P. (2017)
Resilience potential of the Ethiopian coffee sector under climate change
Nature Plants 3: 17081 (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nplants.2017.81. Available online
Moat, J., Williams, J., Baena, S., Wilkinson, Demissew, S., Challa, Z.K., T., Gole, T.W. & Davis, A.P. (2017)
The Strategic Climate Institutions Programme (SCIP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK). Pp. 37
Davis, A. P., Gole, T. W. Baena, S. & Moat, J. (2012)
The impact of climate change on natural populations of Arabica coffee: predicting future trends and identifying priorities
PLoS ONE 7(11): .e47981. Available online
Davis, A. P., Tosh, J., Ruch, N. & Fay, M. F. (2011)
Growing coffee: Psilanthus (Rubiaceae) subsumed on the basis of molecular and morphological data: implications for the size, morphology, distribution and evolutionary history of Coffea
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 167: 357–377. Available online
Davis, A. P., Govaerts, R., Bridson, D. M., Ruhsam, M., Moat, J. & Brummitt, N. A. (2009)
A global assessment of distribution, diversity, endemism, and taxonomic effort in the Rubiaceae
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 96: 68–78. Available online
Davis, A.P., Chester, M., Maurin, O. & Fay, M.F. (2007)
Searching for the relatives of Coffea (Rubiaceae, Ixoroideae): the circumscription and phylogeny of Coffeeae based on plastid sequence data and morphology
American Journal of Botany 94: 313–329. Available online
Davis, A. P., Govaerts, R., Bridson, D. M. & Stoffelen, P. (2006)
An annotated taxonomic conspectus of the genus Coffea (Rubiaceae)
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 152: 465–512. Available online
Projects
Building a climate resilient coffee economy for Ethiopia
Providing a climate-resilient strategy for coffee production in Ethiopia.
Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and climate resilience at Yayu Biosphere Reserve (Ethiopia)
Preserving biodiversity and improving livelihoods through the development of high quality coffee and climate resilient farming practices.
Modelling and genomics resources to enhance exploitation of the sustainable and diverse Ethiopian starch crop Enset and support livelihoods
Towards developing a resilient Ethiopian crop into a key resource for the future in both its home country and the rest of Africa.
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