Sj. Bennett et al., MODELING CLIMATIC SIMILARITIES IN MEDITERRANEAN AREAS - A POTENTIAL TOOL FOR PLANT GENETIC-RESOURCES AND BREEDING PROGRAMS, Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 70(2-3), 1998, pp. 129-143
Several locations with mediterranean climates were used to test the us
e of a software modelling programme called CLIMEX. This programme pred
icts the similarity of a nominated site to other locations within a sp
ecified area. For this study a number of locations were chosen in Moro
cco, Turkey and southern Australia and compared with locations in Medi
terranean 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 loc
ations. The robustness of the model was tested at two locations, Merre
din and Turretfield in Australia, using a number of climatic simulatio
ns. 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 br
eeding programmes is discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig
hts reserved.