17 March 2021
Dr Aaron P Davis
Senior Research Leader
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
Schuit, P., Moat, J., Gole, T. W., Challa, Z. K., Torz, J., Macatonia, S., Cruz, G. & Davis, A. P. (2021)
The potential for income improvement and biodiversity conservation via specialty coffee in Ethiopia.
PeerJ 9: e10621.
Davis, A. P., Gargiula, R., Fay, M. F., Sarmu, D. & Haggar, J. (2020)
Lost and found: Coffea stenophylla and C. affinis, the forgotten coffee crop species of West Africa.
Frontiers in Plant Science 11.
Vega, F. E., Ziska, L., Simpkins, A., Infante F, Davis, A. P., Rivera, J. A., Barnaby, J. Y. & J, W. (2020)
Early growth phase and caffeine content response to recent and projected increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide in coffee (Coffea arabica and C. canephora).
Scientific Reports 10: 5875.
Davis, A. P., Chadburn, H., Moat, J., O’Sullivan, R., Hargreaves, S. & Nic Lughadha, E. (2019)
High extinction risk for wild coffee species and implications for coffee sector sustainability.
Science Advances 5: eaav3473.
Moat, J., Gole, T. W. & Davis, A. P. (2019)
Least Concern to Endangered: applying climate change projections profoundly influences the extinction risk assessment for wild Arabica coffee.
Global Change Biology 25: 390–403.
Davis, A. P., Wilkinson, T., Challa, Z. K., Williams, J., Baena, S., Gole, T. W. & Moat, J. (2018)
Coffee Atlas of Ethiopia, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
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.
Projects
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Coffee natural capital for environmental and livelihood sustainability in Uganda
Assessment and utilization of Uganda’s wild coffee species for livelihood improvement, coffee sector sustainability, and environmental protection.
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Building a climate resilient coffee economy for Ethiopia
Providing a climate-resilient strategy for coffee production in Ethiopia.
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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.
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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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