Modelling climatic similarities in Mediterranean areas: a potential tool for plant genetic resources and breeding programmes

Several locations with mediterranean climates were used to test the use of a software modelling programme called CLIMEX. This programme predicts the similarity of a nominated site to other locations within a specified area. For this study a number of locations were chosen in Morocco, Turkey and southern Australia and compared with locations in Mediterranean Europe, north Africa and west Asia. A similarity index lists the percentage similarity of Mediterranean locations to the nominated site. A map and climate graph are shown for five of the specified locations. The robustness of the model was tested at two locations, Merredin and Turretfield in Australia, using a number of climatic simulations. The importance of rainfall pattern, and the affect of low humidity, to the agricultural system of southern Australia are considered and the potential relevance of this model to plant collection and plant breeding programmes is discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.