Zwanga RATSHIKOMBO

The dietary choices of herbivores are largely influenced by the chemical and nutritional composition of plant species in their habitat. The nutritional quality of plants differs within and across species as a function of different growing stages and environmental conditions. Understanding the difference in nutritional composition of wild and cultivated plants is essential to predict how environmental changes will affect feed quality and the consequences for domestic and wild animal health. The objective of this project was to collect nutritional and chemical composition of wild and cultivated animal food across the world. More than 2000 records across more than 50 countries were recorded which included almost 1000 plant species between wild and crops (including trees, grasses, lichens, mosses, forbs) and their vegetative parts (bark, leaves, flower, fruit, stem, shoot, seed, twig, whole plant). These data will be used to make future projections on how climate change will affect plant nutritive values and the repercussions for wild and domestic animals.