Site Selection: Areas and specific sites are being selected based on several criteria: areas within countries are selected based on: 1) historical regional presence of apple production in historical literature, 2) modern regional presence of apple orchards (e.g., the Italian Statistical Institute), and 3) presence of at least some smaller communities (less than 10,000 people). Specific sites are being selected within each area based on: 1) known diversity of apple cultivars as a predicted measure of diversity within the area. This varies greatly from area to area. Some areas are known to grow as few as 10 varieties while others grow more than 400 varieties. Known diversity is acquired from local agriculture extension agents (e.g., the Servicio Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario (SERIDA), Villaviciosa, Asturias, Españia) or international collections (e.g., USDA Plant Genetic Resources in Geneva, NY). Areas with more known varieties will require more initial site samples, followed by an analysis of the variety-area growth curve from subsequent sampling to determine when site sampling saturation has been achieved, 2) availability of informants (see methods below), and 3) distance from other selected sites (sites need to be dispersed sufficiently for the scale of the GIS analysis). For each area a set of sites will be selected that fit the criteria “on paper”..
After sites (communities) have been selected, we will use detailed government maps to prepare a plan for visiting each site (beginning with a randomly determined site) using detailed government maps of the area. As the community is approached by car the researcher will note if the area has permanent water in the form of streams, swamps, ponds, or dams, and if orchards of fruit trees that include apples are present. If both water and apples were visually observed, then the researcher will stop in the community to identify potential informants. However, if either water or apples are not obvious from the road then the community will be skipped. (Permanent water is being used to select for: 1) older habitation sites because historically people settled first near permanent water, 2) and thus it is likely that more “traditional” agriculture that does not necessarily require modern irrigation will be still present, and therefore, 3) farmers will be still likely be dependent upon rainfall for survival so the managers will be sensitive to weather patterns and potential climate changes. This “search rule” generally applies for drier areas where some apples are grown. However, orchards may also be present without permanent water but lack irrigation systems in more wet areas, implying that rainfall is required. These will also be considered as acceptable. Note: Americans are generally familiar with wet area apple varieties but they are globally uncommon including in the Mediterranean region (as well as arid Central Asia and Africa: see McClatchey & Reedy 2010).
Informant selection: Upon entering a community the researcher will stop and ask the first adult encountered on the street where the local community meeting center (CC) is located (these are often senior centers, bars, public houses, or recreation halls). If there is no CC then the person will be asked if there is an agriculture supply store, pharmacy, or barber shop in the town. The CCs are often locations where people eat and drink at all times of the day and they serve as convenient locations for exchange of community information. Most European and many North American communities have some form of CC. At the CC, farm store, pharmacy, or barber shop the researcher will introduce her/himself to the person managing it and inquire about elderly individuals from the community who grow apples. In our previous experience this method results both on appropriate candidates who live in the same location and on candidates who live in another location. We will ask for a way to contact those potential candidates (i.e., telephone numbers, place of residency, places frequently visited, and the like). Whatever the case, the CC will serve as the primary focus. If there is no CC, farm store, pharmacy, or barber shop the researcher will go on to the next town.
Interviews: As cultural knowledge is often encoded in local language and expressions, all interviews will be conducted in the local language (English, Italian or Spanish). Each interviewee will first be orally presented information about the project goals of learning about management of traditional apple orchards but without mention of anything about climate change. Consent will be requested to use an audio recorder and camera to record the interview and document information about plants and farming systems under discussion. IRB approval for this project has been provided by University of Hawaii, Committee on Human Subjects (approval #17564). Most interviews will be conducted entirely within the interviewee’s orchards where they can point out specific trees, varieties, and plant associations. However, some interviews will begin within the CC and then move to the farm for more specific details. Interviews will follow a semi-structured question format without time limits. Interviews will be in two parts with the first collecting quantitative data and the second, mixed data. During the first part of the interview, the parameters of the orchard (defined as: any place where multiple apple trees are being grown by the informant) will be determined. The following data will be collected: 1) the GPS location of the orchard; 2) the dimensions of the orchard (m2) with the informant identifying the edges of the physical space; 3) the number of trees within the orchard and the variety of each tree (photographs and voucher specimens, see below under physical samples) and if it is grafted, what is the rootstock variety; 4) the relative relationships of the trees will be recorded noting the percent cover of the area of the orchard that is shaded by the apple trees and other trees, as well as the percent cover that is used by other activities (e.g., gardening, hedges, grass fields); and 5) the specific uses of each kind of apple variety. These will be sorted into categories following Cook (1995). During the second part of the interview an attempt will be made to ask questions in the following order but because of patterns in discussion these will vary slightly between interviews:
1. What is your name, age and how long have you been working with/growing apples? [The informant’s apparent gender will also be noted].
2. How did you learn to grow apples? Who taught you? Why do you grow apples?
3. What varieties of apples are being grown (in your orchard) and are these the same that you first learned to grow? If not, how did you choose the apple varieties that you grow?
4. Over the period of time that you have grown apples, have you noticed any changes in how they grow, or in the orchard? If yes, what kinds of changes?
a. If comments on insects becoming more/less, then ask what generates these changes?
b. If comments on flowering/harvesting time changes, then ask why these have changed?
c. If comments on increases/decreases in diseases, then ask why these have changed?
d. If comments on changes in weather, then ask for details how these have changed?
e. If changes were noted, then ask when they were first noted and when the effects became problematic.
5. [If apple varieties have been changed overtime and if changes in their growing were noticed then:] Do all apple varieties deal with changes in the same way?
6. When apple trees die (in the last decade, in the decade before that, and so on) how did you decide what to replace them with? Did you replace them with the same kind of tree? If not, why?
7. Do you grow or encourage growth of any plants other than apples in the orchard? If so, why?
8. Do you remove any other plants from the orchard? If so, why?
9. Has anyone in this community either started or stopped growing apples in a new orchard during your lifetime using methods that are similar to those that you use? If so, could you introduce us?
10. Will your children or someone else in your family, take over caring for this orchard in the future? If not, why?
11. [If the manager learned to work in an orchard from a member of their family then:] Did the person who taught you about growing apples grow the same varieties? If not, what varieties were different and why?
12. Throughout the course of your lifetime have you noticed any changes in the weather? [Usually this discussion has already happened because of one or more of the above questions, but if not it will be offered here at the end]. If so, could these changes affect the apples that you grow, and how? Have you made any changes in how you grow apples to address these changes? [These questions are much too direct and in none of the preliminary interviews was this set needed since these questions were indirectly answered through questions 1-9.]
The choice of some of these questions has been driven by the fact that plant diseases and pest infestations, as well as the supply of and demand for irrigation water, are influenced by climate (FAO 2005, Molua 2009, Al-Bakri et al. 2010). From our experience, answers to these questions are almost always framed about specific varieties and not apples in general because that is how managers think about the trees.
Additional questions will be asked about traditional production of apples for home consumption, commercial purposes, this will include questions relating to cider fermentation methods (Reedy et al. 2009) and basic horticultural practice, such as pest and disease management, pruning, soil management, and sources of knowledge for possible knowledge network analysis. These questions will be asked after the above are completed unless the informant brings up one or more topics sooner. Additional information about cultural practices regarding traditional medicinal (Bussmann & Sharon 2006), culinary (Pieroni & Quave 2006), landscape, symbolic, and ornamental uses of apples will be explored as time and opportunities permit in order to better understand the roles of conservation of specific cultivars within communities, family gardens, religious sites, orchards, and other settings that alter people's perceptions of apple trees as a resource. We will explore the role of specific orchards in community and cultural identity (Common Ground 2000, Marshall & Taplin 2010), as time permits.
The number of interviews to be conducted in each site will be determined using the same variables as were used to determine the number of sites in each area. More interviews will need to be conducted where there are known to be more apple varieties growing in orchards. This will be altered as needed based upon calculation of the probability that each subsequent interview will contribute new information (probability of saturation/diminishing returns) (Martin 1995). Each answer that is different will be coded as a numerical response with the new information/area curve being calculated for each area as data are entered into a computer each day following interviews in each site. Interviews will continue until all of the sites in the geographic area have been sampled and at least three successive interviews yield no new information. Probability curves will be used to calculate the percent of information learned.
Audio recordings will be produced of each interview. During informed consent it will be made clear that the purpose of these recordings is to help the researchers prepare notes and analyze results. Audio recordings will be archived but will only be accessible to researchers.
Photographs: Each apple tree (and any fruit or flowers) discussed within each farm will be photographed, whenever possible. As often as possible the work will be conducted during one of the apple harvest seasons so that most of the trees will have fruit. Orchard arrangements and eventual irrigation systems will be documented with photographs in order to be able to compare relationship patterns across cultures and regions. Apples with diseases that are pointed out by informants will be also photographed.
Crowdsourcing: The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) Atrium Biodiversity Information System (http://atrium.andesamazon.org) will be used as a platform for collection of voluntary survey information from orchard managers. The data entry interface includes space for responses to each of the part one and two questions listed above but the instruction order reversed asking for part two information first with part one information being optional. Question number 1 of part 2 may be answered anonymously (without giving a name) and then a sequential number will be assigned. Questions are presented to the respondent one at a time and removed after answers are entered and the next question given. Each respondent will be asked to give the name of their country and closest town so that their results may be georeferenced. Responses are stored in a MySQL database.
Volunteers for crowdsourcing will be solicited primarily through an e-mail announcement that will be sent to all known cider makers, orchard managers and government apple extension agents in Italy, Spain, UK, U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Our preliminary database of cider makers with web sites/e-mail addresses in these countries includes over 1100 (mostly with GIS coordinates). From interviews with a sample of these we know that many are likely to be members of local producer and farming organizations and therefore the announcement will also be sent to these organizations. The announcement will indicate that all participants will also be the recipients of the resulting data / analyses emerging from the project. Government extension agents in Italy, Spain and Washington State have led us to believe that most orchard managers will want to participate in order to receive back data that may be able to help them in their orchard management. After each ethnographic interview is conducted, printed copies of the announcement will be given to the interviewed orchard manager for other orchard managers who could participate through crowdsourcing.
Ethnobiological Analysis (for data obtained through interviews): Agrobiodiversity has been shown to be strongly linked to cultural heritage (Pieroni et al. 2005). Measurement of conservation potential of orchard systems will be conducted using ethnobiological analysis of combinations of agrobiodiversity coupled with quantitative measures of human interactions with the apples (Pieroni 2008, Winter & McClatchey 2009). Local identity will be explored to determine if communities with more integrated local ecological knowledge have stronger relationships with apple agrobiodiversity (e.g., Gómez-Baggethun et al. n.d.). Together these will produce relative profiles of orchard resilience (sensu Folke et al. 2002, Folke 2006) to potential change based upon the maintenance of specific cultural practices. Principal Component Analysis will be used to identify the leading cultural practices that are associated with maintenance of orchard diversity, conservation of agrobiodiversity. Correlation analysis will determine relationships between specific climate observations (changes) and responses.
Climate data analysis (overlapping with data from interviews and crowd sourcing, but also other informative data, see below): The spatial distribution of plants, and different varieties, is mainly affected by climate patterns even if other variables such as pedology, exposition and biogeographical events may also be important. In order to obtain reliable climate data for the areas under study (where the orchards are located), average monthly daily values of rainfall and temperature will be collected at gauging stations belonging to national meteorological networks. The referred period would be at least of 50 (when available longer time series, up to 100 years, of data will be collected) years in order to superimpose the period of manager observations. In this way it would be possible to have information both on climate and of orchard managers for the same period of time explored through both climate record analysis and orchardist observations. Climate indicators will be calculated as long-term average of the total month (and annual) precipitation (and minimum and maximum temperature). The calculation of the moving average or the analysis of climate indicators data on differential sets of data will be usedto identify pattern or trends in rainfall and temperature and the likely period of occurrence (when the shift started). . To obtain a picture of the spatial pattern of these parameters and indicators will be used geostatistical procedures including ordinary kriging and co-kriging (with elevation, latitude and distance to the sea as ancillary variables) in a GIS environment. These analysis will allow to: 1) define areas which are homogenous for given climate parameters; 1) visualize climate trends; 3) define areas where climate factors could represent a limiting factor for apple growth; 4) create an informative layer that could be combined with other environmental data.
Importance of the apple as a keystone species (for data obtained through interviews and crowdsourcing): Quantitative observational data (e.g., percentage of specific climate change observations in an area, numbers of apple varieties grown, size/area of orchard,) and demographics of informants will be evaluated using a variety of importance indices (Hoffman & Gallaher 2007) but because this is focusing on resource management, most emphasis will be upon statistical evaluation of cultural significance indices (Silva et al. 2006). Qualitative information about informant’s knowledge of management of resources (e.g., orchard manager responses to changes) will also be mostly converted to scaled-quantitative measures for analysis (Gauoe & Ticktin 2009) for a comparison of differences between randomly paired orchards. Observational (crowdsourcing and ethnographic) results will be analyzed by region of study and then globally. We will use software specifically designed to process textual data (i.e., Atlast.Ti or NVivo) to analyze semi-structured interviews. Within each region of study we will look for information on A) perceived climate changes, and B) changes in orchard management practices as responses to A). We will code the information by apple variety to be able to track similarities / differences in adaptation strategies across varieties / regions.