98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

OOS 25

Plant Reintroductions As Sustained Ecological Experiments: Results and Feedbacks To Restoration and Theory

Plant reintroductions are an emerging tool for conserving rare taxa. Endangered species reintroduction is necessary when too few populations or individuals exist in the wild to sustain long-term demographic or genetic viability. Reintroductions, introductions, and augmentations can reduce extinction risks by providing connectivity between populations, increasing the size of individual populations, and increasing genetic variation within populations. Reintroduction is often regarded as a special component of habitat restoration that faces unique challenges due to the high value placed on the target species, the often high costs of propagation, often low number of available propagules, and frequent knowledge gaps about individual species’ needs. Reintroductions have failed so often that many regard them as unreliable. The goal of this session is to advance the science of “reintroduction ecology” through three objectives: synthesize information from active practitioners in this field, promote the use of manipulative experiments to test hypotheses during the reintroduction process, and suggest feedbacks to restoration and ecological theory. A discussion on the topic of reintroductions is needed to reach broader consensus among biologists by comparing approaches and identifying testable questions that will advance reintroductions individually as well as collectively. This session is of interest to the membership of ESA because it addresses topics at the intersection of plant ecology and conservation biology. Surveys of plant reintroductions show that few are monitored for long periods and that monitoring is often superficial, ignoring detailed demographic and genetic sampling. In this session, we bring together research that looks intensively and over sustained intervals at plant reintroductions (including augmentations, introductions, translocations), emphasizes a variety of methods of analysis and evaluation, and shows how this research informs restoration ecology. The session emphasizes hypothesis testing and provides examples of how ecological and evolutionary theory can be leveraged to improve the success of species reintroductions, as well as provide opportunities to test theories relevant to restoration ecology. Speakers will cover the use of plant trait theory to predict the likelihood of reintroduction success, use of long term demographic data to evaluate and forecast reintroduced population trajectories, effect of seed source on reintroduction success, genetic variation in introduced and wild populations, and effects of climate change on reintroduced populations. Speakers will also cover experimental reintroductions to test explicit hythotheses.