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For
further information contact: GIS
Communications
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Objective:
Spatially prioritize ex situ collection of the valuable,
but rare, species of wild chilli (Capsicum flexuosum)
- Partners:
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Plant Explorations Office (PEO),
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)
, Ministerio de Agricultura, Paraguay, Ministerio de Medio
Ambiente, Paraguay.
- Team:
Andrew Jarvis (CIAT),
Gareth Mottram, Karen Williams (USDA),
David Williams (IPGRI),
Luigi Guarino (IPGRI).
- Information:
Andrew Jarvis
Funded by IPGRI
and USDA-PEO.
- Research:
This research theme makes use of FloraMap to prioritize
an ex situ collection of germplasm of a rare wild chilli
(Capsicum flexuosum) in Paraguay. Climate was used
to predict the potential distribution based on the 19 observations
that have been made of this species. Only two of these are
germplasm collections, and the rest herbarium specimens.
The predicted distribution is further refined through use
of land cover data to locate forest edges where this wild
chilli is known to be found. The final map defines priority
locations along roads where USDA and IPGRI biologists may
find this species. A collecting mission was made based upon
these predictions in March 2002, and collected six new populations
of this species, all but one in areas where the GIS predictions
showed high priority. This increased the amount of germplasm
collections for this important species fourfold. We are
now analyzing these results in detail to further improve
our a priori distribution modeling of important species.
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