The construction of a crop wild relatives database for the UK

Presentation for PGR-ForumMenorca, 21 April 2004

Maria Scholten, Nigel Maxted, Brian Ford-Lloyd, Chris Baggott, Shelagh Kell

University of Birmingham

The construction of a crop wild relatives database for the UK

Terms of reference:

National Inventory of UK PGR (Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs) for crop wild relatives and landraces

At School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham

Agriculture and Food uses

Procedure

Starting point: the PGR-Forum first match of Mansfeld’s with Euro+Med database, filtered on UK distribution

Harmonisation of European and UK taxonomies (UK taxonomy = National Flora (Stace 1997)

Check with UK ethnobotanical literature on uses

Collate occurrence data from botanical surveys (UK occurrence data = New Atlas 2002)

Collate conservation data

Database structure: two taxonomies

Crop Wild Relatives Euro+Med+MDB-genus

Euro+Med+MDB-species

Euro+Med+MDB-subspecies

Family ISOStace-genus

Stace_species

Stace_subsp

Avena fatua Poaceae GBR Avena fatua

Avena sterilis subsp. ludoviciana

Poaceae GBR Avena sterilis subsp. ludoviciana

Avena sterilis subsp. sterilis Poaceae GBR Avena sterilis subsp. sterilis

Avena sterilis Poaceae GBR Avena sterilis

Avena strigosa Poaceae GBR Avena strigosa

Database structure: two taxonomies in order to retain synonyms

EURGENUS EURSPECIES EURSUBTAXA GENUS SPECIES SUBTAXAFestuca heterophylla Festuca heterophylla

Festuca huoniiFestuca lemanii Festuca lemaniiFestuca longifolia Festuca longifoliaFestuca ovina Festuca ovinaFestuca pratensis Festuca pratensisFestuca rubra Festuca rubra

Festuca rubra subsp. arctica

Festuca nigrescens Festuca rubrasubsp. commutata

Festuca rubra subsp. juncea Festuca rubra subsp. junceaFestuca rubra subsp. pruinosa Festuca rubra subsp. junceaFestuca rubra subsp. litoralis Festuca rubra subsp. litoralisFestuca rubra subsp. rubra Festuca rubra subsp. rubra

Festuca rubra subsp. scoticaFestuca vivipara Festuca vivipara

UK Crop Wild Relatives Overview

Total UK taxa: 4111CWR agriculture and food: 973

20.3 % of UK flora is a crop wild relative for agriculture and food

UK Crop Wild Relatives Overview

Number of families: 72

1. Poaceae2. Cyperaceae3. Rosaceae4. Fabaceae5. Asteraceae

Number of genera: 233Number of species: 836

Database structure: occurrence data

• Floristic data: botanical surveys (most recent 1999)

• Data format: number of 10 by 10 km squares

• Change index to indicate relative change

Database structure: linking taxonomy with distribution data

GENUS SPECIES SUBTAXA DISLEVEL DISTRIBUTION TREND CWRNAME

Festuca rubra sens lat 2748 Red Fescues

Festuca rubra subsp. arctica 23

Festuca rubrasubsp. commutata 88

Festuca rubra subsp. juncea 168

Festuca rubra subsp. juncea 168

Festuca rubra subsp. litoralis 67

Festuca rubra subsp. rubra

Festuca rubra subsp. scotica 2

sensu lato

Occurrence categories

Occurence frequency categories(number of taxa within the given ranges of 10x10km grid

squares)

<1616-100101-200201-596597-1451>1451

> 50% (= very common)

20 – 50% (= common)

> 200 squares – 20%100 – 200 10 by 10 km squares

< 16 10 by 10 km squares (= rare)

16 – 100 10 by 10 km squares

(= scarce)

UK Crop Wild Relatives Occurrence Overview

19% of taxa is very common (>50% of grid squares)

37% of taxa is common to very common

46% of taxa occurs in less than 200 grid squares

UK Crop Wild Relatives in decline

11% of taxa is scarce (< 200 grids) AND in decline

12% of native taxa17% of archeophytes Are synanthropic taxa more

vulnerable?Examples of threatened

archeophytes:Carum carvi, Chenopodium ssp.

Database structure: Conservation related fields

• Threat assessment (IUCN)• Legal conservation status (UK Legislation)• Conservation action (Biodiversity Action Plan)

IUCN Threat Assessment

IUCN threat category native total taxaCR (Critically Endangered) 9 10EN (Endangered) 8 9VU (Vulnerable) 35 38NT (Near Threatened) 18 21LC (Least Concern) 13 14NS (Nationally Scarce) 84 92DD (Data Deficient) 3 3NE (Not Evaluated) 451 783

Conservation priorities: Endemics or socio-economics?

12 of 18 endemic taxa have IUCN threatened of near-threatened status

(14 of 18 endemic taxa are Sorbus)

Or socio-economic importance?

The construction of a national crop wild relatives database for the UK: conclusions

Taxonomy is important and time-consuming

Other data-entry is relatively easy and fast

IUCN assessment relatively easy

Application of CWR data: Avena strigosa Schreb.

Before 1970 1989- 1999

Distribution data of wild A. strigosa