PGR Forum Crop Wild Relative Information System (CWRIS)

European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum

Welcome to CWRIS: The PGR Forum Crop Wild Relative Information System

Home

Introduction

Introduction

Effective and efficient information management is the crux of any conservation programme, and a vital component of current CWR conservation and use initiatives. Suitable standard descriptors and a management paradigm are required to manage CWR inventories, and to facilitate access to existing information on CWR taxon, site and population level data. To this end, PGR Forum has developed such standards and a paradigm, as well as implementing them in the Crop Wild Relative Information System (CWRIS) (PGR Forum, 2005), the first information management system specifically designed to facilitate CWR conservation and use.

CWRIS has two main dimensions: taxon information breadth is provided by the PGR Forum CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean, while the CWR descriptors for conservation and use for individual CWR taxa provide taxon information depth. The Catalogue contains nearly 25,000 species records and in excess of 273,000 records of taxon occurrences in 132 geographical units across the region. The CWR descriptors provide a comprehensive set of data standards that can be used to effectively manage genetic conservation of CWR taxa and their component populations. The descriptors provide the structure within which existing data can be accessed or mapped onto the data model, and novel data can be provided. A corresponding XML schema has been written as part of our commitment to enabling access and sharing of CWR data.

CWRIS has been designed to facilitate access to CWR data for a diverse range of user communities, including plant breeders, protected area managers, policy-makers, conservationists, taxonomists and the wider public. A fundamental aspect of the development of CWRIS was to ascertain the requirements of its users. A simple online survey was created to assist in the development of the system by establishing the types of information of interest to users and which are of the highest priority. CWRIS provides the opportunity for users to carry out taxon searches and to view a list of CWR taxa for geographical areas of interest. CWRIS also provides access to ancillary information on the taxa contained in the Catalogue via links to external online resources, such as Mansfeld’s World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops, GRIN Taxonomy, European Nature Information System (EUNIS), the IUCN Red List, Electronic Plant Information Centre (EPIC) and key publication search engines. The opportunity exists to link to any number of useful and relevant online information resources that will benefit the CWR conservation and use community.

What you will find in CWRIS

CWRIS comprises:

A searchable database of crop species and their associated wild relatives that occur in Europe and the Mediterranean region. The taxonomic back-bone to CWRIS was provided by Euro+Med PlantBase (http://www.emplantbase.org/home.html) version August 2005. CWRIS provides occurrence records according to geographic boundaries, not political boundaries. Therefore, in cases where a country comprises more than one distinct geographical boundary e.g. Turkey and Turkey-in-Europe, the taxon records are associated with each geographical unit individually. Other examples, include islands such as the Azores, which belong to Portugal, and the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain. Each Island in these groups has a separate entry in the database.
Information on the taxa contained in the database via external web links.
A data model for the management of CWR information, with an emphasis on site and population data, which is required for the effective genetic conservation of in situ CWR populations. The data model is illustrated with a number of CWR case studies. The case study data has been provided by participants in the PGR Forum project. An XML schema corresponding to the data model is also available.

How the CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean was created

The PGR Forum CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean (Kell et al., 2005, 2008) was created by matching four lists of genera containing crop species with the genera contained in Euro+Med PlantBase. The four lists of crop genera are:

Agricultural and horticultural crops: genera selected from Mansfel'ds World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
Forestry crops: genera selected from Schultze-Motel (1966), Enumeration of forest plant species
Ornamental crops: genera selected from the list of plant varieties granted licenses by the CPVO (Community Plant Variety Office)
Medicinal and aromatic plants: genera selected from MAPROW (Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Resources of the World)

The taxa contained in the matching genera were selected from Euro+Med PlantBase. Taxon occurrences for extant taxa and those recorded as present in the geographical units of the region were selected for inclusion in the Catalogue.

Note: The PGR Forum CWRIS is a dynamic system that will continue to be developed over time and should therefore be considered as work in progress. The CWR Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean, that is contained in CWRIS will be updated periodically, as Euro+Med PlantBase is reviewed and edited.

References

Kell, S.P., Knüpffer, H., Jury, S.L., Maxted, N. and Ford-Lloyd, B.V. (2005) Catalogue of Crop Wild Relatives for Europe and the Mediterranean. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. Available online via the Crop Wild Relative Information System (CWRIS – http://www.pgrforum.org/cwris/cwris.asp) and on CD-ROM.

Kell, S.P., Knüpffer, H.,Jury, S.L., Ford-Lloyd, B.V. and Maxted, N. (2008) Crops and wild relatives of the Euro-Mediterranean region: making and using a conservation catalogue. In: Maxted, N., Ford-Lloyd, B.V., Kell, S.P., Iriondo, J., Dulloo, E. and Turok, J. (eds.) Crop Wild Relative Conservation and Use. CABI Publishing, Wallingford. pp. 69–109.

PGR Forum (2005) Crop Wild Relative Information System (CWRIS). University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. Available at: http://www.pgrforum.org/cwris/cwris.asp

Acknowledgements

Helmut Knüpffer, Norbert Biermann (IPK, Germany) for provision of Mansfeld and forestry data; Stephen Jury, Tarik el Atechi (University of Reading, UK), Werner Greuter, Anton Günsch, Eckhard Raub-Straube (BGBM, Germany) for provision of Euro+Med PlantBase data; Ton Kwakkenbos (CPVO, France) for provision of ornamental data; Uwe Shipmann (BfN, Bonn) for provision of medicinal and aromatic plant data.

Access to CWRIS

Access to and use of the information contained in CWRIS is strictly subject to the terms and conditions set out in the Legal Notice and Licence Agreement.

The University of Birmingham hosts and administers this web site on behalf of the European crop wild relative diversity assessment and conservation forum (PGR Forum)

Page last updated 04 February 2008

PGR Forum Home