New study on abiotic stress in wild rice using a GIS approach

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) provides geo-referenced observations of thousands of plant and animal species, including species within the genus of Oryza. We used this information together with harmonized world maps with soil parameter and climatic data to identify species with interesting distribution in their natural habitats. Using GIS, the geo-references observations can be overlaid by maps with e.g., soil data so that soil parameters can be extracted for each individual observation of a given species.

We had more than 10,000 observation of 19 different species of Oryza. Some species showed promising distribution patterns with exciting preferences (or tolerances) to abiotic stress such as flooding, drought, salinity or toxic soils. Over the next years, we are going to use this information to select species to work with in our constant search for useful traits that can be introgressed into modern, high-yielding cultivars. Max’ study is thus an important stepping-stone on the way to develop climate resilient rice for the world’s rice producing countries.

An example of what we have done using the GIS-approach. 19 species ordered according to the monthly precipitation in the "growth season" over a 10-year period. Clearly, the habitat of some species such as Oryza australiensis is characterized by low precipitation whereas other species grow in more wet environments. However, it is also clear that we have plenty of observations for some species (Oryza rufipogen has more than 8,600 geo-referenced records in GBIF) whereas others only have few...