WASHINGTON — AgroAtlas, an interactive Russian/English website, shows the geographic distributions of 100 crops; 640 species of crop diseases, pests, and weeds; and 560 wild crop relatives growing in Russia and neighboring countries.
The atlas also includes 200 maps that illustrate the environmental variables that affect crop production in that part of the world. In addition to the maps, the Internet-based atlas provides free geographic information system (GIS) software and offers color photos and a wealth of useful information about each species.
The site was created by a team of Russian scientists backed by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service,
Huge database
Although maps and information can be printed individually, once the free GIS software and atlas data are downloaded, users can build layers of information to, for example, determine the locations of the heaviest concentrations of insect pests, like Russian wheat aphids, in relation to the geographic distribution of wheat in the former Soviet Union.
“The ability to layer information from such a comprehensive atlas enables researchers to answer a huge array of agricultural questions,” said Stephanie Greene, an ARS plant geneticist who leads the AgroAtlas project with Alexandr N. Afonin, a senior scientist with St. Petersburg State University-St. Petersburg.
Application
“For example, when we demonstrated AgroAtlas in Crimea, a major wine-producing region, we showed where along its coast U.S. wine grapes can be successfully grown,” said Greene.
“In Petrozavodsk, a group that coordinates activities for more than 70 Russian botanical gardens was excited to see how the atlas and GIS software can be used to support plant-introduction activities. In the North Caucasus region, they were interested in using the atlas to understand the distribution of major wheat diseases according to agroclimatic zones.”
Long time coming
AgroAtlas is the successful result of a proposal that Greene and Afonin submitted in 2003 for funding under a program coordinated by ARS’s Office of International Research Programs (OIRP) in Beltsville, Maryland, with funds from the U.S. Department of State.
Known officially as the “Interactive Agricultural Ecological Atlas of Russia and Neighboring Countries,” AgroAtlas is administered by the International Science and Technology Center, an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Moscow and comprising 13 member countries, including the United States.
To date, more than 60 scientists from three Russian research institutes have contributed their knowledge and time to the seven-year project.
Food security
“The impetus behind developing AgroAtlas was to promote food security, particularly in the NIS (Newly Independent States) countries, which are challenged with broadening their agricultural base after the Soviet years,” said Greene, who is with ARS’s Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing in Prosser, Washington.
“We wanted to bring together a wealth of agricultural information in a format that was useful to scientists, policymakers, and farmers and to provide tools that would enable the information to be combined and analyzed so it could support agricultural decisionmaking.”
U.S. potential
The bilingual atlas is also generating interest in the United States and other countries.
Greene said an official with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service who contacted her about AgroAtlas remarked on its potential to aid in detecting and identifying species of insect pests, disease organisms, or weeds that have entered — or could enter — the United States from Russia or neighboring countries.
The USDA Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey program has also used AgroAtlas in developing the Grape Commodity Survey Reference Data Sheet. A scientist in the United Kingdom found the information on black currants valuable in writing a global review on black currant production, markets, and products, Greene adds.
Climate tracker
On another front, AgroAtlas maps of climate, environmental, and other data could be integrated with computer models to assess the potential impact of global climate change on the future distribution of crops, pests, and crop wild relatives, particularly in the former Soviet Union.
Genetic map
Another potential application is improved conservation of genetic resources.
According to Greene, no other resource gathers together the geographic distribution of the many native crop wild relatives that are found in Eastern Europe and central Asia.
Although the atlas has only recently been published, the website receives more than 30,000 hits per month, she reports.
