A reassessment of the conservation status of a rare Florida endemic mint, Macbridea alba
Plants are foundational to the planet’s biodiverse ecosystems and despite their critical role in successful conservation and restoration efforts, plants lack adequate protection. At least 40% of all vascular plants on Earth face increased global risk of extinction. Effective conservation is often challenged by a lack of data to support management and protection of at-risk species, particularly those that are considered rare or endemic. In this thesis, I present an applied conservation case-study with a species of concern: Macbridea alba, a federally threatened and state endangered mint endemic to four counties within the Florida panhandle. Currently, the species is a candidate for delisting from the Endangered Species Protection Act list, however, a lack of up-to-date data associated with this species has created challenges for the effective management and conservation of the species. In order to fill such gaps for Macbridea alba, I: 1) created and field validated species distribution models to target survey efforts for new populations, 2) defined habitat associations within the species range, and 3) re-evaluated the reproductive ecology of the species. The results of this study show that M. alba populations are likely restricted to managed public lands within the panhandle, associated with transitional ecotones, sensitive to changes in vegetation and dependent on fire disturbance, and despite the viability of seed, could be recruitment or seed limited due to low fruit and seed set across populations. The new findings and updated data can form a more complete picture of conservation needs, improve management efforts, and make novel contributions to the protection of this rare plant species. Furthermore, my methods outline effective tools useful in the rapid assessment of species-at-risk and highlight effective strategies for rare and endemic plant species.
Rare Plant Conservation, Species Distribution Modeling, Plant Conservation, Habitat Associations, Reproductive Ecology, Population Ecology
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign