Conservation of important plants from the Ionian Islands at the Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia, N Greece: using GIS to link the in situ collection data with plant propagation and ex situ cultivation

Abstract

The Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia (BBGK) is dedicated to the ex situ conservation of native plants of Greece and the Balkans. The BBGK has formulated a conservation strategy for the collection of wild plant material for propagation, prioritizing mainly the endemic, rare, endangered, threatened and vulnerable plants of Europe found in different regions of Greece. Its aim is to contribute to the implementation of Target 8 of the Global and European Strategies for Plant Conservation at local, regional and international scales. In order to (i) define the ecological profile of the in situ requirements preferred and/or tolerated by each selected species, (ii) develop rapid and effective species-specific propagation protocols, and (iii) improve the cultivation of species of conservation concern in BBGK's nurseries and ex situ conservation sections, geographical coordinates and in situ collection data obtained for each taxon were imported into a Geographic Information System environment (GIS). This information was then linked with several digital GIS thematic layers, including topographic, geological, edaphic, climatic, precipitation and temperature data derived from digital databases. Based on this approach, sexual and asexual propagation of plants from the Ionian Islands were conducted and rapid and effective baseline protocols were developed for 29 taxa (species and subspecies); four are presented here in detail and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (species-specific ex situ propagation and cultivation guidelines are given. Most of the taxa originating from the Ionian Islands were propagated by cuttings (55.2%) or seeds (34.5%), while the rest were propagated by root division at a rate from 1.7 to 2. The first round of propagation achieved a success rate ranging from 15 to 50% for 3 taxa, from 60 to 80% for 8 taxa and from more than 80 to 100% for 16 taxa, while the ex situ cultivation of the wild and propagated plant material has, so far, been successful. The application of GIS exemplified here presents a sensible and invaluable tool with a broad-scale potential in enhancing the prospects of the ex situ conservation of priority species collected from diverse environmental conditions in man-made habitats such as botanic gardens.

GIS and ex situ Plant Conservation

“…Given the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the environmental factors and the dissected topography of the landscape, the target plants may well originate in a variety of quite different habitats in which they are adapted to grow naturally. Hence, it seems quite difficult to be able to emulate their preferable conditions when trying to cultivate them in restricted man-made habitats such as botanic gardens (Krigas et al, 2010). A deeper understanding of the ecology and life cycle of such target species has been considered as a key issue towards a species-specific successful propagation and cultivation method (Baskin & Baskin, 1988).…”

“…1): the Aegean Archipelago, Crete, Ionian Islands, and Peloponnese (Greece, Southern Europe). The target plants included in this dataset fall into the conservation priorities of the Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia (BBGK, , Krigas et al, 2010. To date, the BBGK has organized several botanic expeditions all over Greece in order to collect appropriate plant material for propagation and ex situ conservation.…”

“…All this plant material is currently maintained under ex situ conservation (ca. 25% of the known Greek flora which includes at least 6.300 species and subspecies, Krigas et al, 2010). The positions of the collection sites of target plant species were captured in the wild using handheld GPS trackers.…”

“…Allium samothracicum (Krigas, 2009), or endemics of a group of nearby areas or islands e.g. Thymus holosericeus (Krigas et al 2010), ii. Regional endemics (endemics to small parts of a single country, e.g.…”

“…Lately, a new application of GIS has been launched for the ex situ plant conservation; GIS was used to describe quantitatively and qualitatively the natural habitats of target plants in order to facilitate their propagation and transfer from the wild habitats to man-made habitats like botanic gardens (Krigas et al, 2010).…”