Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) in the Netherlands
Cultivated crops produce the main part of our daily food. Changes in environmental conditions, for example as a result of the changing climate or the appearance of new diseases, may endanger food production and thus call for better adapted crop varieties. Therefore, our food security relies on the availability of the necessary traits for crop improvement, which often can no longer be found in the cultivated gene pool. Fortunately, wild plant species related to cultivated crops (CWR) constitute a rich source of potentially useful traits, which can be introduced in cultivated crops through plant breeding. Because the continued existence of many wild plant species is uncertain due to influences such as pollution, urbanisation and climate change, it is of the utmost importance that CWR do not get lost and remain available for crop improvement. Prior to the development of protective measures, one first has to know which CWR are actually occurring within national boundaries. For the economically most important agricultural and horticultural crops, CWRnl presents the results of a CWR inventory in the Netherlands.
Overview of CWR
This website shows an overview of CWR described as native or introduced to the Netherlands before the year 1900. The species are classified per crop, by their English name and by their botanical name. Information about the species is organized in fact sheets, including data on crop relationship, conservation status and distribution. For CWR included in the Dutch Red List of plant species, more detailed distribution maps for the Netherlands are presented as well as expected distribution maps for the year 2070 based on climate change. For these species also the occurrence in Dutch nature reserves is indicated and whether seed samples are conserved in the Dutch gene bank.
Publications
Effects of climate change on the distribution of crop wild relatives in the Netherlands in relation to conservation status and ecotope variation
Van Treuren, Rob, Roel Hoekstra, Ron Wehrens, Theo J.L. van Hintum (2020). Global Ecology and Conservation 23.
Van Treuren, Rob, Roel Hoekstra, Theo J.L. van Hintum (2017). Biological Conservation 216 (2017). - ISSN 0006-3207 - p. 123 - 139.
Crop wild relatives range shifts and conservation in Europe under climate change
Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Jesús, Rob van Treuren, Roel Hoekstra, Theo J.L. van Hintum (2017). Diversity and Distributions 23 (2017)7. - ISSN 1366-9516 - p. 739 - 750.