Conserving Europe’s plant genetic resources for use now and in the future PGR Forum European crop wild relative diversity assessment and conservation forum PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Session 2, Group 1: Monitoring genetic erosion and pollution at taxonomic level

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Assessing and monitoring genetic erosion and pollution at taxonomic level Can genetic erosion be assessed and monitored at taxonomic level? Yes Can genetic pollution be assessed and monitored at taxonomic level? Yes What are the potential methods of assessing and monitoring genetic erosion and pollution at taxonomic level?

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion at taxonomic level Assessing extinction risk Need baseline data to provide reference point Could make use of existing assessments on the Global Red List Could also make use of national floras and inventories Red List change indices could be used to monitor at taxon level

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion at taxonomic level What are the taxonomic levels at which assessment can be made? Species, subspecies, varieties (+ micro- species and aggregates?) Taxonomic assessment can be applied at any spatial scale: local, national, regional, global Whether taxon threatened with extinction falls within GP1, GP2, GP3 and/or TG1, TG2, TG3, TG4, TG5 can be used to prioritise

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion at taxonomic level But what does extinction risk tell us about how to address genetic erosion? What will be most useful to know are the underlying causes Taxa in similar habitats/ecosystems and under similar pressures may also be considered under threat of genetic erosion Red List Assessments have known threats documented

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion at taxonomic level  Extinction risk can be used to assess and monitor (over a long time scale) but probably not to actually predict genetic erosion  There is a close relationship between loss of populations and increasing extinction risk at taxon level

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic pollution at taxonomic level  Assessing and monitoring genetic pollution at taxonomic level may be possible using molecular analyses

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion at taxonomic level Can the methods be practically and realistically applied? Yes, methodology needs to be worked on Are the methods applicable to all taxa/taxon groups in the CWR list? Yes, likely

PGR Forum - EVK Fifth Framework Programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Methods for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion at taxonomic level Where does taxonomic assessment fit into the hierarchy of techniques for assessing and monitoring genetic erosion and pollution? Can provide a crude indication of genetic erosion, which may lead to further study at population or genetic level Furthermore, it may be useful to look at loss of taxa in context of habitats and ecosystems