[PCA] Risks of transplants & enhancements

[Larry Morse]

>From Adolf Ceska, Botanical Electronic News (BEN):

> RISKS OF TRANSPLANTING PLANTS OF NON-NATIVE ORIGIN
>    AND ‘ENHANCEMENT’ OF POPULATIONS OF ENDANGERED SPECIES
>
> From: Zdenek Kaplan et al. [Kaplan at ibot.cas.cz] 
>         
> [This is an abbreviated version of the official position of the Czech
> Botanical Society – signed by 16 prominent botanists - on the attempts to
> ‘save’ endangered plant species by planting them willy-nilly where people
> would like to see them growing.  This is a free translation of the
statement
> published in the _Bulletin of the Czech Botanical Society_ 42 (2):
337-338,
> 2007.]
>
> Since the 19th Century, there have been recorded attempts to ‘enhance’ our
> flora by planting non-original plants into native plant communities.  The
> goal of those attempts was to ‘enrich’ the indigenous flora and make them
> more similar to the floras of surrounding areas.  This activity results
not
> only in the introduction of new elements into the framework of the
original
> plant communities, but it may also result in negative  changes that we are
> not able to predict:
>
> 1) Introduction of alien elements can result in introduction of alien
> genetic material to the locality, which can lead to hybridization with
> members of the original population, and to genetic erosion of natural
> populations.  In this way, the original  gene pool can be destroyed.
> Furthermore, the hybridization of alien plants with the original plant
> population may lead to new, more vigorous genotypes that may outcompete
the
> original population that people are trying to preserve.
>
> 2) With the introduction of new plants, alien plant pathogens can be
> unintentionally introduced.  Such an element can lead to elimination of
the
> original population.  There is also danger in introducing genetic material
> that might lessen the population’s ability to resist possible infection.
>
> 3) New plants placed in a particular locality can lead to the disruption
of
> the competition balance.  The introduction can result in the disappearance
> of the original genotype.  In extreme cases, the new genotype can become
> weedy and  outcompete and replace the original population.
>
> 4) The intentional introduction of native plants into natural habitats
will
> impede further studies and hence possible protection of endangered plants
> based on knowledge of their ecology.  Even with good documentation,  after
> some time it is difficult to tell which populations are indigenous and
which
> are introduced elements.  For instance, the repeated planting of
_Nymphaea_
> species [in the Czech Republic] has made it impossible to tell which sites
> are native and which are the result of intentional plantings.
>
> The aim of this article is to show to the potential ‘Engineers of Nature’
> the dangers and irreversible damage that can be done by intentional
> transplanting into natural vegetation.  We are certain that their efforts
> are well meant; however, it must be remembered that even the road to hell
is
> paved with good intentions.

Larry Morse
Washington, D.C.
larry.morse.dc at earthlink.net
(Larry.E.Morse at LEM-Natural-Diversity.com)
(202)-543-2488
< http://www.lem-natural-diversity.com/ >