[SOS-PCA] SAVE THE DATE: Plant Conservation Alliance e-Meeting, July 10, 2024, 2-4pm ET, with speaker Dr. Natali Ramirez-Bullon

[Krone, Elizabeth C]

***SAVE THE DATE***

Please RSVP to attend our fourth PCA meeting of 2024 where we welcome Dr. Natali Ramirez-Bullon, Recovery and Listing Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who will discuss “Refined approaches to improving efforts to conserve plant biodiversity”.


ABOUT THE PRESENTATION: Determining which species require immediate conservation action to prevent extinction is imperative for efficient allocation of scarce resources for conservation. However, it is difficult to distinguish species in danger of imminent extinction from those that are rare, but demographically stable. Strong density regulation in some species may allow populations to persist at low abundance because a reduction in the number of individuals increases population growth. This mechanism would allow a species to remain at low abundance for many years with low risk of extinction. I conducted field experiments in related pairs of common and rare plant species to test the hypotheses that rare taxa experience stronger density regulation. I also aimed to identify plant traits that are associated with strong density regulation, which could provide a tool to identify other rare taxa that are at low risk of extinction. Furthermore, I examined the effects of human disturbance on the evolutionary diversity and relatedness in Longleaf pine grasslands, a biodiversity hotspot in the continental U.S.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTER: Dr. Natali Ramirez-Bullon is a listing and recovery botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based out of Asheville, North Carolina. Natali is the national recovery lead for 10 federally listed species. Prior to joining the Service, she worked as a biologist for environmental consulting companies, research institutions, non-profit and federal conservation agencies in three countries (Peru, UK, and USA). Those experiences led her to pursuing her master and Ph.D. in ecology at evolution at Florida State University. For her master thesis, she constructed and analyzed a matrix demographic model for a threatened dioecious plant to determine the population status. Her dissertation research used field experimentation and synthetic analyses of global scale biological data to support a quantitative framework for setting conservation priorities for plant species. Natali is an AAUW American Dissertation Fellow and National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) graduate fellow. She led an interdisciplinary team to investigate how public engagement with biodiversity influences policy and how it relates to conservation success, resulting in one of her nine publications.

This meeting is held remotely and open to all.

More information about the presentation can be found on our PCA Meetings page<https://www.plantconservationalliance.org/meetings>.

*** PLEASE RSVP TO ATTEND THIS MEETING ***

RSVP by Monday, July 8, to elizabeth_krone at fws.gov

The meeting login details will be shared with all respondents via calendar invite and email by Tuesday July 9.

This meeting will be hosted using Microsoft Teams. You will be able to join the meeting from the web or via the Microsoft Teams app<https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads>.

The PCA general meetings are open to everyone and follow this format:
>Updates on PCA Activities - learn about and get engaged in the Plant Conservation Alliance
>Invited Speaker – a topical presentation to explore any of the six focal areas identified in the PCA National Framework for Progress<https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/programs_natural-resources_native-plant-communities_national-seed-strategy_pca_Framework_6.11.2020.pdf>: collaborative conservation; education; restoration; research and development; sustainability; and information sharing
>Native Plants Roundtable - all participants are encouraged to share information on national native plant events and activities

— This meeting is brought to you by the Plant Conservation Alliance Speaker Organizing Team — Gary Krupnick (Smithsonian Institution) / Ray Mims (U.S. Botanic Garden) / Nick Jensen (California Native Plant Society) / David Lincicome (Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation) / Andrea Kramer (Chicago Botanic Garden) / Elizabeth Krone (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
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