Conservation gap analysis for wild grapevines ( Vitis L.) of the Americas

Societal Impact Statement Wild grapevines ( Vitis L.) native to the Americas are ecologically and culturally important plants that are also critical to the global cultivated grape industry as sources of traits for crop innovation, but many of these species are poorly documented and insufficiently conserved. We provide new information on the distributions, environmental adaptations, and conservation statuses of 38 wild grapevine taxa native to the Americas. Ranging from southern Canada to northern South America, with the greatest concentration of taxa in the southern and central to eastern United States and in central to southern Mexico, these taxa show wide variations in their adaptations to different environmental conditions. The vast majority of taxa are of urgent or high priority for further conservation action. Summary The wild relatives of cultivated grapevines ( Vitis L.) are ecologically and culturally important plants that provide valuable genetic resources for grape scion and rootstock breeding. The distributions of wild grapevines, local adaptations to environmental conditions of potential interest for crop innovation, and their current degree of representation in conservation systems are insufficiently documented. Here, we compile occurrence records for 38 wild grapevine taxa native to the Americas, predict their distributions at high spatial resolution, use climatic and topographic information to infer their environmental adaptations, and assess their ex situ and in situ conservation representations, including identification of gaps in current conservation. Wild grapevines occur from southeast Canada to southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, with one taxon distributed from Mexico to northern South America as well as the Caribbean and one taxon endemic to Colombia. Taxonomic richness is concentrated in the southern and central to eastern United States and central to southern Mexico, with up to 10 potentially sympatric taxa in central to southern Texas. We find substantial variation among and within Vitis taxa in their adaptations to temperature, precipitation, and topographic characteristics. We categorize 25 of 38 of the taxa as urgent priority and 10 as high priority for improving ex situ conservation representation. Three taxa are assessed as urgent and 29 as high priority for enhancing in situ conservation. Further action, with emphasis on conservation gap hotspots, is needed to more comprehensively conserve wild Vitis native to the Americas.