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Implications of genetic heterogeneity for plant translocation during ecological restoration.

ABSTRACT: Ecological restoration often requires translocating plant material from distant sites. Importing suitable plant material is important for successful establishment and persistence. Yet, published guidelines for seed transfer are available for very few species. Accurately predicting how transferred plants will perform requires multiyear and multi-environment field trials and comprehensive follow-up work, and is therefore infeasible given the number of species used in restoration programs. Alternative methods to predict the outcomes of seed transfer are valuable for species without published guidelines. In this study, we analyzed the genetic structure of an important shrub used in ecological restoration in the Southern Rocky Mountains called alder-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus). We sequenced DNA from 1,440 plants in 48 populations across a broad geographic range. We found that genetic heterogeneity among populations reflected the complex climate and topography across which the species is distributed. We identified temperature and precipitation variables that were useful predictors of genetic differentiation and can be used to generate seed transfer recommendations. These results will be valuable for defining management and restoration practices for mountain mahogany.

SUBMITTER: Crow TM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7863393 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Implications of genetic heterogeneity for plant translocation during ecological restoration.

Crow Taylor M TM Buerkle C Alex CA Runcie Daniel E DE Hufford Kristina M KM

Ecology and evolution 20210116 3

Ecological restoration often requires translocating plant material from distant sites. Importing suitable plant material is important for successful establishment and persistence. Yet, published guidelines for seed transfer are available for very few species. Accurately predicting how transferred plants will perform requires multiyear and multi-environment field trials and comprehensive follow-up work, and is therefore infeasible given the number of species used in restoration programs. Alternat ...[more]

PMID: 33598117

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Project description:Ecological restoration is expected to reverse the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Due to the low number of well-replicated field studies, the extent to which restoration recovers plant communities, and the factors underlying possible shortcomings, are not well understood even in medium term. We compared the plant community composition of 38 sites comprising pristine, forestry-drained, and 5 or 10 years ago restored peatlands in southern Finland, with special interest in understanding spatial variation within studied sites, as well as the development of the numbers and the abundances of target species. Our results indicated a recovery of community composition 5-10 years after restoration, but there was significant heterogeneity in recovery. Plant communities farthest away from ditches were very similar to their pristine reference already 10 years after restoration. In contrast, communities in the ditches were as far from the target as the drained communities. The recovery appears to be characterized by a decline in the number and abundance of species typical to degraded conditions, and increase in the abundance of characteristic peatland species. However, we found no increase above the drained state in the number of characteristic peatland species. Our results suggest that there is a risk of drawing premature conclusions on the efficiency of ecological restoration with the current practice of short-term monitoring. Our results also illustrate fine-scale within-site spatial variability in the degradation and recovery of the plant communities that should be considered when evaluating the success of restoration. Overall, we find the heterogeneous outcome of restoration observed here promising. However, low recovery in the number of characteristic species demonstrates the importance of prioritizing restoration sites, and addressing the uncertainty of recovery when setting restoration targets. It appears that it is easier to eradicate unwanted species than regain characteristic species by restoration.

Project description:Conservation translocations are frequently inhibited by extensive dispersal after release, which can expose animals to dispersal-related mortality or Allee effects due to a lack of nearby conspecifics. However, translocation-induced dispersals also provide opportunities to study how animals move across a novel landscape, and how their movements are influenced by landscape configuration and anthropogenic features. Translocation among populations is considered a potential conservation strategy for lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). We determined the influence of release area on dispersal frequency by translocated lesser prairie-chickens and measured how lesser prairie-chickens move through grassland landscapes through avoidance of anthropogenic features during their dispersal movements. We translocated 411 lesser prairie-chickens from northwest Kansas to southeastern Colorado and southwestern Kansas in 2016-2019. We used satellite GPS transmitters to track 115 lesser prairie-chickens throughout their post-release dispersal movements. We found that almost all lesser prairie-chickens that survived from their spring release date until June undergo post-translocation dispersal, and there was little variation in dispersal frequency by release area (96% of all tracked birds, 100% in Baca County, Colorado, 94% in Morton County, Kansas, n = 55). Dispersal movements (male: 103 ± 73 km, female: 175 ± 108 km, n = 62) led to diffusion across landscapes, with 69% of birds settling >5 km from their release site. During dispersal movements, translocated lesser prairie-chickens usually travel by a single 3.75 ± 4.95 km dispersal flight per day, selecting for steps that end far from roads and in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands. Due to this "stepping stone" method of transit, landscape connectivity is optimized when <5 km separates grassland patches on the landscape. Future persistence of lesser prairie-chicken populations can be aided through conservation of habitat and strategic placement of CRP to maximize habitat connectivity. Dispersal rates suggest that translocation is better suited to objectives for regional, rather than site-specific, population augmentation for this species.

Dataset Information

Implications of genetic heterogeneity for plant translocation during ecological restoration.

Publications

Implications of genetic heterogeneity for plant translocation during ecological restoration.

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