JRV presents on the use of GBIF data for conservation at the 2013 GBIF Science Symposium in Berlin, Oct. 8 2013

1. Use of GBIF-mediated data for in-
situ and ex-situ conservation
planning
Julian Ramirez-Villegas, Nora Castañeda, Colin Khoury, et al.
THE GBIF
SCIENCE
SYMPOSIUM
2013
Berlin, October 8 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 13

2. Content
✤ Part 1: In-situ conservation of plant diversity in
South America
✤ GBIF mediated data
✤ Threats and conservation status
✤ Filling the conservation gaps
✤ Part 2: Ex-situ conservation of crop wild relatives
✤ Methodology
✤ GBIF data + + +
✤ What and where to preserve
Wednesday, October 9, 13

3. Importance of biodiversity
✤ ~3 billion people depend
directly on marine
biodiversity + ~1.6
depend on forests (CBD,
2010)
✤ Pollinators are worth ~50
billion USD / year (CBD,
2010)
✤ Crop wild relatives
valued in ~200 billion
USD for agriculture
Biodiversity spots and poverty
Wednesday, October 9, 13

4. Importance of biodiversity
0
100
200
300
400
VEN COL PER ECU BOL E. Africa CWR Pollinators
GDP/Value(billionUSD)
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5. In-situ conservation of plant
diversity in South America
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6. In-situ conservation of plant
diversity in South America
GBIF data Threats data
(Jarvis et al. 2010)
WDPA data
+ +
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7. GBIF data
✤ Automated cleansing of GBIF data
44,706,505
0
25
50
75
100
Plantae Coordinates Unique Trustable S. America
PercentfromPlantae
33,340,000
14,390,414 12,860,281
513,368
Wednesday, October 9, 13

8. Existing threats
✤ We used a multi-dimensional “threat
index”
endemism threat
pop.
highest
threat
lowest
threat
Range size
Wednesday, October 9, 13

9. Existing threats
✤ ~80 % taxa have at
least one population
in a high threat area
✤ ~14 % taxa had 80
% or more of their
populations at high
threat
✤ 173 (out of 1088)
taxa had their
single recorded
population in a high
threat area
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Averagemax.threatamongpopulations
Access
Fires
Def.
Grass.
Conv
Inf.
Oil/Gas
Wednesday, October 9, 13

10. Are reserves sparse?
✤ For the most part they’re not:
✤ >80 % taxa have at least one
population in a protected site
✤ ... and 63 % have more than 30
% of their populations in
protected sites
✤ But there are cases
✤ ~18 % taxa presented no
populations in protected sites
✤ How to improve the
representativeness?
Is it possible to widen the system?
Wednesday, October 9, 13

11. Messages
✤ Threat level seems to be high: accessibility, fires and
deforestation being key drivers
✤ In some cases (e.g. taxa with little data) we may be
over-estimating threats. Data collection remains key.
✤ Protected sites are in the right places, though better
completeness can be achieved if a few areas are
added to the current network
✤ ... and we must not forget about appropriate
connectivity, monitoring and funding for protected
sites
Wednesday, October 9, 13

12. Ex-situ conservation of crop wild
relatives: gap analysis
Wednesday, October 9, 13

13. Why crop wild relatives?
✤ Current crop breeders rely on finding the right genes
against biotic or abiotic stresses. Crop wild relatives may be
such source:
Hajjar and Hodgkin (2007)
Wednesday, October 9, 13

14. A gap analysis methodology...
applied to 29 crops
Determine gaps
Model
distributions
Gather taxonomic
data
Gather occurrence
data
Make conservation
recommendations
Georeferencing
+others
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15. 1.Taxonomic search
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16. 2. Gather occurrence data
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17. 3. Our data 2,608,155 records for the 29 crops
1,526,698 records with coordinates
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18. 4. Model species distributions
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19. 5.A gap analysis methodology...
Taxonomic
EnvironmentalGeographic
Expert-based assessment of model
results
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20. 6. (a)What should we collect?
✤ Ex-situ conservation status
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21. 6. (b)Where should we collect?
Sunflower
Rice
Beans
Millets
Cowpea
Pigeonpea
Musa
Carrot
Maize
Beans
Apples
Wednesday, October 9, 13

22. “How well” our model does
Data paucity and lack of globally-informed expert caused large
differences
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23. Delivering our results...
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24. Messages
✤ Crop wild relatives as a source of genetic traits for
adapting to climate change
✤ Methodology published in 2010, now applied over 29
genepools --some 2 million data
✤ Nearly half CWR are not well conserved ex-situ.
Collections are needed
✤ We can trust our approach reflects expert knowledge,
though improvements in modelling are possible
✤ Collections need to happen in many countries in all
continents... negotiations need to happen
Wednesday, October 9, 13

25. Conclusions
✤ Models and data can help design / improve
conservation strategies, particularly if stresses and
range changes are expected with climate change
✤ Thanks to GBIF data is being shared and... more
importantly, widely used.
✤ Two example analyses show that the data is not
perfect, but adequately represents (or complements)
existing knowledge in many areas
Wednesday, October 9, 13

26. Thanks!
j.r.villegas@cgiar.org
Wednesday, October 9, 13