Pre-translocation considerations in rare plant reintroductions : implications for designing protocols

The existing literature on plant translocations focuses on post-translocation outcome while still overlooking issues related to the preparation phases. Yet, plant translocation programmes face significant pre-translocation challenges. In the present study, we want to share our pre-transplant experience on four rare plant species (Arnica montana, Campanula glomerata, Dianthus deltoides, and Helichrysum arenarium), highlighting aspects we need to focus on while planning plant translocations. We emphasise some issues that need to be overcome before any translocation is undertaken during the four steps of translocation preparation, i.e. the selection and profiling of the target species, the seed collection, the development of propagation protocols and the assessment of plant fitness of the populations used as seed source. We discuss the implications of our results for designing translocation protocols. Our findings on A. montana show that if local seed sources are constrained to small remnant populations, seed quality may be poor. Preliminary tests using different kinds of growing medium provided valuable information for optimizing plant propagation protocols. Although it is attractive to establish propagation protocols using seeds obtained via Index Seminum (to avoid wasting collected source seeds), the results obtained were not always reproducible on the seeds collected in the wild source populations. Differences in pre-translocation plant fitness were also detected between seed source populations, which might reflect genetic diversity and maternal effects. As the translocated plants should capture as much genetic diversity as possible to ensure a high adaptive potential and improve establishment success, multisource reintroductions can be recommended.

Jaar van publicatie:2016

Toegankelijkheid:Closed