The construction of a crop wild relatives database for the UK Presentation for PGR-Forum Menorca, 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 FamilyISO Stace- genus Stace_ species Stace_ subsp AvenafatuaPoaceaeGBRAvenafatua Avenasterilissubsp. ludoviciana PoaceaeGBRAvenasterilissubsp. ludoviciana Avenasterilissubsp. sterilisPoaceaeGBRAvenasterilissubsp. sterilis AvenasterilisPoaceaeGBRAvenasterilis AvenastrigosaPoaceaeGBRAvenastrigosa

Database structure: two taxonomies in order to retain synonyms

UK Crop Wild Relatives Overview Total UK taxa: 4111 CWR agriculture and food: % of UK flora is a crop wild relative for agriculture and food

UK Crop Wild Relatives Overview Number of families: 72 1.Poaceae 2.Cyperaceae 3.Rosaceae 4.Fabaceae 5.Asteraceae Number of genera: 233 Number 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 sensu lato

Occurrence categories > 50% (= very common) 20 – 50% (= common) > 200 squares – 20% 100 – by 10 km squares < by 10 km squares (= rare) 16 – 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 taxa 17% 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 categorynative total taxa CR (Critically Endangered) 9 10 EN (Endangered) 8 9 VU (Vulnerable) NT (Near Threatened) LC (Least Concern) NS (Nationally Scarce) DD (Data Deficient) 3 3 NE (Not Evaluated)451783

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 Distribution data of wild A. strigosa