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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #221326
Title: USER-FRIENDLY GIS: HELPFUL TOOLS FOR CROP DEVELOPMENT

Author
item Greene, Stephanie

Submitted to: New Crops and New Uses
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/19/2007
Publication Date: 12/12/2007
Citation: Greene, S.L. 2007. User-friendly gis: helpful tools for crop development. In: Janick, J. and A. Whipkey (eds.). Issues in New Crops and New Uses-Proceedings of the Sixth National Symposium Creating Markets for Economic Development of New Crops and New Uses. 2007. ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA p. 19-22.

Interpretive Summary: Geographic Information System (GIS) applications provide a wide range of tools that can increase the efficiency of developing new crops. Thanks to the growth of applications that are user-friendly and relatively inexpensive, scientists developing new crops can capitalize on the technology without needing to be GIS specialists. The objective of this paper is to highlight user-friendly GIS tools that can help scientists identify, evaluate and develop new crop species, and new uses for existing crops. The GIS tools mentioned are available freely or at little cost and are relatively straight forward to use. Depending on objectives, scientists developing new crops may find these tools and others, useful in their work.

Technical Abstract: Geographic Information System (GIS) applications provide a wide range of tools that can increase the efficiency of developing new crops. Thanks to the growth of applications that are user-friendly and relatively inexpensive, scientists developing new crops can capitalize on the technology without needing to be GIS specialists. The objective of this paper is to highlight user-friendly GIS tools that can help scientists identify, evaluate and develop new crop species, and new uses for existing crops. Several applications allow scientists to model the geographic distribution of species or assess habitat suitability for species. FLORAMAP, has user-friendly software that uses occurrence and climate data to create maps showing the most likely distribution of the targeted species. These types of maps are useful for planning seed collection trips. BIOMAPPER builds habitat suitability models using Ecological Niche Factor. DESKTOP GARP can also be used to model species distribution. WHYWHERE allows users to use latitude and longitudes to not only generate a predictive map, but also provide an explanation for the distribution of the points. DIVA-GIS, is a free GIS software specifically designed for managing, using and conserving genetic resources.