TRANSPLANT  
  Determining the extinction risks and the re-introduction of plant species in a fragmented Europe.
The TRANSPLANT program aimed at quantifying the effects of habitat fragmentation on survival probabilities of plants measured over their range of distribution to develop a red data list of species on a European scale. Solid guidelines based on genetic and demographic data were to be developed for active species-level restoration measures, including re-introduction, to allow the sustainable use of plant biodiversity and reconcile economic development with the protection of threatened plant species. These goals were to be achieved by reciprocal transplanting experiments, detailed genetic and demographic studies, and dispersal ability experiments. Study species were selected to represent a gradient from highly immobile long-lived species with low dispersal to short-lived very mobile species. This measures in a hierarchical fashion the effects of genetic variation for local adaptation that translates into population survival and colonization potential elsewhere, which in turn determines the extinction risk in fragmenting habitats.

 

 

The main project outcomes are:

  • The development of an integrated risk evaluation tool to estimate the effect of habitat fragmentation on species survival perspectives in realistic landscapes
  • Guidelines for sound conservation and management of plant biodiversity. These include, amongst others, the need to re-introduce species in cases where fragmentation is such that re-establishement of local extinct species is unlikely over reasonable time frames, and to restore genetic diversity and cancel out the effects of inbreeding in areas where fragmentation and isolation threaten to affect demographic fate. It is, however, important to take regional effects into account when re-introducing.

Apart from these practical advises to improve the survival probabilities of endangered plant species and restore biodiversity in fragmented landscapes, these measures have only short  term effects if no conscientious policies on sustainable and integrated land use are developed, in which the various spatial claims in our landscapes are reconciled and landscape integrity restored. This will require coordinated physical planning. Fragmentation is a slow process but undoubtedly the most damaging threat to biodiversity in the long run because it is so difficult to reverse its effects.

 
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