Plant conservation urgently needs a concept that would unify different aspects of population viability as parts of conservation methodology. Such unification is especially lacking for ex situ conservation. We introduce a novel conservation approach in which ex situ collections maintained in natural or semi-natural environment and preserving both neutral and adaptive genetic diversity are a part of a complementary ex situ–in situ conservation strategy. Our approach is the first that explicitly takes into account ecologically significant (i.e. adaptive) variation of plants in both ex situ and in situ conservation actions. Using this approach we provide detailed guidelines for (1) representative sampling of the populations; (2) collection maintenance; and (3) utilization for in situ actions.

Quasi in situ: a bridge between ex situ and in situ conservation of plants

Articles C urrent extinction rates of plant and animal species are estimated to be as much as 100-to 1000-fold higher than during the recent geological past, a phenomenon that conservation biologists attribute to wide-scale destruction of natural habitats (Pimm et al. 1995). As natural habitats continue to disappear, there have been increasing efforts to stockpile wild plant species in large, centralized seed banks—a form of conservation that falls under the general category of ex situ conservation , or conservation outside the native habitat. Seed banks are facilities where seeds are stored under cold and dry conditions. This prolongs seed viability and thereby preserves plants for future use. Traditionally, seed banks have played their largest role in the conservation of domesticated plant varieties (Plucknett 1987), though some agricultural seed banks such as those maintained by US National Plant Germplasm System have kept collections of nondomesti-cated species, particularly the wild relatives of crop plants. During the past two decades many botanical gardens began to establish seed banks for the purpose of conservation. Most noteworthy is the Millennium Seed Bank Project at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Great Britain (Smith et al. 1998). This massive undertaking aims to stockpile 10% of the world's plant diversity, targeting species of the dry tropics, as well as all plant species native to Great Britain. Similar, though less ambitious, efforts are under way in North America, sponsored by the Center for Plant Conservation at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, and regional initiatives (e.g., the New England Plant Conservation Program) are being carried out in many parts of the world. As well, over 700 botanical gardens maintain seed collections of mostly wild, ornamental, medicinal, and in some cases crop and crop-related species (FAO 1996). In this article we focus on seed banks as tools for the conservation of wild plant species, as opposed to plant species having direct, explicit use to humans (e.g., crops, pasture species, trees, and medicinal plants). The increasing popularity of the seed bank as a tool in the conservation of wild plant species can be attributed to a number of factors. First, seed banks provide immediate access to plant samples, allowing researchers and conservation biologists to evaluate them for properties such as new sources of medicines, nutrition, and genes. Second, the availability of plant germplasm in seed banks facilitates scientific study that could provide helpful information for conserving the remaining natural …

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0960:TCOWPS]2.0.CO;2

The Conservation of Wild Plant Species in Seed Banks

Europe has the greatest concentration of botanic gardens in the world, they cultivate extensive collections of plants that include samples of European threatened plant species. This study looks at the effectiveness of these collections in supporting species conservation. A three part study is presented: (1) the results of a survey and assessment of threatened plants in botanic gardens, as defined by the Bern Convention; (2) case studies illustrating current issues in the ex situ management of European threatened plant species; and (3) presentation of policy recommendations on further improving botanic garden contributions to European plant conservation. The survey indicated that of 119 European botanic gardens in 29 European countries, 105 are cultivating 308 of the 573 threatened plant species listed by the Bern Convention. The survey identified 25 botanic gardens in 14 countries undertaking 51 conservation projects focused on 27 Bern listed species. In particular this survey has established that the majority of taxa are held in a small number of collections, dominated by non-wild origin accessions, and are not adequately documented. The majority of specimens in botanic gardens are cultivated out of the range country and not contributing to a specific conservation project. We review the genetic representation and documentation of origin in collections. Existing plant collections contain representatives of populations, now lost in the wild and maintain samples of at least nine European plant taxa identified as 'Extinct in the Wild'. However, inadequate standards of record keeping has compromised the conservation value of many collections. We highlight the dangers of hybridisation and disease in ex situ collections. The results suggest that botanic garden collections are skewed towards horticulturally robust and ornamental species and do not fully reflect priorities as defined by the Bern Convention. Recognising the limitations of traditional botanic garden collections we propose that botanic gardens more effectively utilise their two core competencies, namely scientific horticulture and public display and interpretation. The unique horticultural skills resident in European botanic gardens could be more effectively utilised through the application of horticulture to the management of wild populations.

The effectiveness of botanic garden collections in supporting plant conservation: a European case study

Crop germplasm collections contain a considerable percentage of misclassified accessions which may affect the use of germplasm for agricultural crop improvement. The objective of this study was to determine if random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis could be used to reclassify misclassified Triticum accessions. Twelve accessions suspected to be misclassified, based on morphological characters, as either macha or vavilovii wheat were studied using RAPD and cytological analyses. In the RAPD analysis, a dendrogram, based on Jaccard genetic similarity coefficients, grouped 5 dicoccum-like, 1 timopheevii-like, and 6 monococcum-like accessions with Triticum dicoccum, T. timopheevii, and T. monococcum accessions, respectively. These results were confirmed by the cytological analysis. A RAPD marker specific to the D genome was also detected. This study suggests that RAPD analysis can be used to classify germplasm and to distinguish some species in Triticum.

The use of RAPD analysis to classify Triticum accessions

To date, there have been only limited attempts to conceptually unify ex situ and in situ approaches as parts of an integrated conservation methodology. This paper is an attempt of such conceptual integration of existing approaches for the efficient conservation of rare and endangered plant species. My integration of available plant conservation biology literature is based on the idea that ecologically significant species genetic variation is of primary importance for plant conservation. This idea is used for providing guidelines about inventory of existing populations, sampling and propagating sampled material, and use of this material in species recovery actions.

Species-targeted plant conservation: time for conceptual integration

Botanical gardens once played a key role in plant taxonomic research. For the majority of gardens, this is no longer the case. In recent years, botanical gardens have turned to conservation as one of their major goals. A “Botanical Gardens Conservation Strategy” was launched by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Botanical Gardens Conservation Secretariat with emphasis given to wild plants of economic use. It is stated by advocates of this policy that botanical gardens are ex situ centers par excellence. However, the role that botanical gardens can play in conservation of plant species may be questioned. Doubts include the problem of in situ vs. ex situ collections in general, and the present status of collections held by botanical gardens in particular. Normally, genetic variation within species, the concern of conservation genetics, is totally underrepresented in botanical gardens, a considerable percentage of plants is mislabeled, and proper documentation is weak. It is nevertheless argued that botanical gardens can play an active role in conservation efforts. First, they can influence broad public opinion and create proper education programs. Second, they shoud establish ex situ collections for local wild plants and could propagate and provide material for reintroduction programs. To achieve these goals botanical gardens have to base their activities on a sound basis, and have to collaborate with research institutions and conservationists.

Conservation genetics and the role of botanical gardens

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

H. Hurka

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Conservation genetics and the role of botanical gardens