Presentation1 - Basis of application of Ecogeography in PGR

Basis of the application of

Ecogeographyin plant genetic resources

Mauricio Parra QuijanoFAO consultant International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Nutrition and Agriculture CAPFITOGEN Program Coordinator

What is Ecogeography?

Definition: Is the study of the adaptive scenario of a given individual, population or species through the analysis of biotic and abiotic factors that affect survival.

Ecogeography

Product of genes modelled by the environment,Main aim of the process

Inherited and inheritable information (genes, considered collectively) which is translated into proteins

Modelling effect of genes and their products. This can be so important that it could determine the presence or absence of genotypes in some sites

AmbientePhenotype = Genotype + Environment + (genotype x environment) interaction

ADAPTATION

Plants

Abiotic

Biotic

Anthropic

Adaptive Scenario

Anthropic factors

Administrative divisions and borders, land use, roads, production systems, etc..

Biotic factors

Vegetation, distribution of diseases, pests, herbivores, associated organisms ...

Geophysical component

-Slope

-Aspect

-Elevation

-Latitude/Longitude

- Solar radiation

Abiotic factors

-Precipitation

-Temperatures

-Bio-climatic indices

Bioclimatic component

Edaphic component

-Soil type

-pH

-CIC

-% of organic carbon

-Effective depth

-% of clay, silt and sand

Applicability

According to the degree of domestication

Human influence

Specific adaptation

Collecting day?

Sunny, 15ºC, absence of precipitation, etc.

but… is it always like this?

Time needed to collect soil samples?

Terrain aspect measurements?

Equipment for measuring solar radiation?

How to characterize a collecting site?

What if there are hundreds of collecting sites?

GIS

Ecogeographical variables (in GIS format)

What are the necessary means?

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What is GIS?

Definition (Geographical Information System):Computational system used to analyse spatially referenced data

Origin…during the 60s in Canada with the increasing need to manage forest areas

Applied today in ... environmental protection and management, urban and regional planning, resource management, land use, surveying of optimal sites (schools, companies, hospitals, etc..), military aspects, among others

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What do GIS offer?

In the case of concern, GIS allow us to

• Show objects as points, lines or polygons and place them on a geographical representation of the earth surface (map)

• Create buffer areas (areas of influence) around these points, lines or polygons

• Overlay these objects (points, buffer areas, etc.) with maps that may contain different useful information about the land (thematic maps)

• Modify these maps at our convenience

• Extract information for each point from one or more overlapping maps

• Doing all these processes quite quickly and reliably

Graphically…

Y

X

Point Roads Land use Elevation

1 C-405 Forest 1110

2 A-2 Urban 294

3 NIV Swamp 562

How to characterize ecogeographycally the collecting sites

Conditions maintained for hundreds or even thousands of years

About environmental variables …

In a GIS, they will be introduced as layers/maps, and there are two types of layers:

Vectorial Raster

©ESRI image

As every map they have:

1. scale 2. coordinate system

And they are grouped by theme:

3. bioclimatic 4. geophysical 5. edaphic6. biotic 7. anthropic

Sources of information

At National level, maps in GIS layer format is usually available, but in general these datasets are difficult and/or expensive to get access to. Its resolution is usually high as they cover a reduced extension (country). Please ask for this material in your National Geographic Institute.

At international level, there is a growing offer of information, usually supplied free of charge and public access (for non-commercial use). Its resolution is increasingly higher (due to its global reach). Some recommended sources:

• Global Administrative Areas (GADM), http://www.gadm.org•WorldClim, http://www.worldclim.org•Harmonized world soil database (HWSD) http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/External-World-soil-database/HTML/•Globcover http://due.esrin.esa.int/globcover/•FAO geonetwork http://www.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/main.home•CGIAR-SRTM http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/•ESRI http://www.esri.com/data/free-data•WWF ecoregions http://worldwildlife.org/biomes

GIS Software and related tools

Software •DIVA-GIS (GIS software) http://www.diva-gis.org•ArcGIS ESRI http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop•R http://cran.r-project.org/•Grass http://grass.osgeo.org/

Georeferencing

•Google, google maps, google earth, google apps…•Gazetteers•GeoLocate http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/•Website with several useful links http://www.herpnet.org/herpnet/Gazetteer/GeorefEspanol.html

List of possible applications in PGR

1. Optimized germplasm collecting2. Detection of potential bias in previous collecting activities

3. Identification and evaluation of protected areas for in-situ conservation 4. Identification of suitable areas to establish genetic reserves 5. Identification of appropriate sites for “on farm” conservation

6. Identification of appropriate sites for PGR regeneration/multiplication 7. Ecogeographical characterization of collecting sites8. Maps of genotypic, phenotypic and/or eco-geographical diversity9. Studies of the ecogeographical representativeness of the germplasm collections 10. Establishment of ecogeographical core collections11. Environmental description of the germplasm characterization/evaluation sites 12. Enhancement of phenotypic and genotypic germplasm analysis

13. Improvement of documentation particularly regarding the georeferencing of collecting sites14. Facilitate the use of germplasm through eco-geographical information systems, which provide

useful information for the parental selection 15. Optimized utilization of germplasm. Focused Identification Germplasm Strategy (FIGS)

COLLECTION

EX-SITU CONSERVATION, CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION

DOCUMENTATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

IN-SITU CONSERVATION

What activities you need to perform?

Collecting germplasm

• Try to avoid collecting where others have already collected

• Collecting germplasm in environments that you have not yet sampled

• Collecting germplasm that is very likely to contain genes of interest

What activities you need to perform?

Determine where to perform in-situ conservation• Which protected areas are more "protective" of agro-biodiversity and which

ecosystems /species do they protect?

• Which areas within the work frame are more appropriate or would be a priority in terms of investment for “on farm” conservation projects?

What activities you need to perform?

Determine representativeness of your ex-situ collections• Is optimal the representativeness of adaptive environmental of your collection?

• Should you collecting germplasm as a priority activity?

What activities you need to perform?

Identify the areas with higher diversity (F, G or E)• Where do we find the highest concentration of phenotypic, genotypic or

environmental adaptive diversity within an study area?

What activities you need to perform?

Identifying potentially useful germplasm• Want to enhance the usefulness of your collection?

• Keen to identify germplasm with environmental adaptations of interest for plant breeding?