Information on plant adaptation can be very useful in agrobiodiversity studies. Ecogeographical land characterization (ELC) maps constitute a new tool in this direction with great potential. To assess the usefulness of this approach, an ELC map of Spain was created through multivariate methods. Its performance to characterize plant habitat preferences was compared with existing ecological regions and land cover maps. Collecting sites and seed weight from eight plant species were used to test the ELC map. Categories from each map were assigned to accessions using collecting sites. Chi-square tests were applied to test if category frequency distributions for each species followed a distribution proportional to the relative frequency of categories in each map. The tests found significant differences in the eight species studied. Thus, Bonferroni confidence intervals (BCI) classified categories from maps in preferred, neutral or avoided habitats. Seed weight was used as a proxy for plant adaptation. Comparison between observed and expected ranking of BCI and quartile classes in terms of seed weight means, and GLM and post-hoc tests carried out to test the effect of these classes upon seed weight showed consistently better results for the ELC map. Species results and applications of ecogeographic maps in plant genetic resources conservation are discussed.

An efficient germplasm collecting method was evaluated using six Lupinus species and the Spanish Lupinus collection as a study case. This method includes the application of geographic information systems, ecogeographical land characterization maps, species distribution models and gap analysis to identify prioritized collecting sites. To evaluate the efficiency of this collecting method, field collecting expeditions were carried out focusing on prioritized sites and the results of these collections were analyzed. Prioritized sites were identified using spatial and ecogeographical gaps, and potential species richness maps. The spatial gaps corresponded to populations non-included in the collection but recorded by other information sources while ecogeographical gaps corresponded to spatial gaps that were located in ecogeographical categories (obtained from the ecogeographical map) that were scarcely represented in the collection. A potential Lupinus species richness map was obtained by adding the information of single maps of Lupinus species distribution models. Subsequently, prioritized sites were obtained in ecogeographical gaps with high potential species richness values. Collecting expeditions were made in Spain in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Results showed that using the efficient germplasm collecting methodology was highly positive not only from a quantitative viewpoint (between 7.8 and 11% increase) but also in qualitative terms, focusing collection efforts in ecogeographical categories with low or null representation in the Spanish Lupinus collection (41% of the new accessions). Phenotypic differences related to adaptation to environment were observed in the field between the populations that grow in low or null represented categories and those that grow in highly represented categories.

This chapter describes three methodological approaches for assessing the ecogeographical representativeness (ER) of a gene bank with emphasis on collection of crop wild relative (CWR) species: (1) comparison of gene bank passport data with external sources, (2) ecogeographic characterization of a gene bank, (3) use of ecogeographical land characterization maps. Case studies are provided with Lupinus species in Spain. Aspects which should be considered in ER studies are explained first, such as homogeneity, spatial or taxonomical resolution together with the data inputs necessary for carrying out any ER study. The three alternatives combined can offer a highly accurate ER for any gene bank and any species. However, if the target species is a CWR, the potential of ER studies is even greater.