Distribution mapping at the national leve for the european plant-parasitic nematode survey

Abstract

It may appear incongruous that the European Plant-Parasitic Nematode Survey (EPPNS) was formally recognised in April 1980 by the European Science Foundation (ESF) as an Additional Activity in Taxonomy. To quote from the ESF report (Anon, 1980) the survey is a « research programme on the border line between pure science and those [sic] of agricultural interest... The aim of the survey is to establish collaboration among European national centres engaged in research in plant-parasitic nematodes with a view to producing computer-based maps of the distribution of individual nematode species ». The reasons for viewing an exercise in establishing distributions and producing computer maps in a wider biological context will be examined later.