Conservation of Hawaiian Lpbelioids - in Vitro and Molecular Studies

With over 25% of Hawai'i’s Campanulaceae already extinct and many more on the verge of extinction, research in the propagation and the genetics of the remaining populations is greatly needed. In vitro propagation of 58 Hawaiian Campanulaceae species were attempted, through in vitro germination, organogenesis, or micropropagation. More than 80% of the species received as seeds were successfully germinated. No differences in germination rate or percentage was found between immature and mature seeds. Leaf explants produced viable shoots in 43% of the species, and 29% of wild-collected bud explants were successfully grown into plants. RAPDs was used to detect variability of the seedling populations of two bottlenecked species, Cyanea asarifolia St. John (original wild population of 15 plants) and Delissea undulata ssp. undulata Gaud, (original wild population of one plant). DNA was extracted from each species using small amounts of leaf tissue produced in vitro and used for the RAPDs studies. No detectable variation was found within these populations (indicating the impoverished remaining genetic information). The value of in vitro propagation and molecular studies of reduced populations is discussed

Conservation of Hawaiian lobelioids : in vitro and molecular studies

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-153).Microfiche.viii, 153 leaves, bound ill. 29 cmWith over 25% of Hawai'i's Campanulaceae already extinct and many more on the verge of extinction, research in the propagation and the genetics of the remaining populations is greatly needed. In vitro propagation of 58 Hawaiian Campanulaceae species were attempted, through in vitro germination, organogenesis, or micropropagation. More than 80% of the species received as seeds were successfully germinated. No differences in germination rate or percentage was found between immature and mature seeds. Leaf explants produced viable shoots in 43% of the species, and 29% of wild-collected bud explants were successfully grown into plants. RAPDs was used to detect variability of the seedling populations of two bottlenecked species, Cyanea asarifolia St. John (original wild population of 15 plants) and Delissea undulata ssp. undulata Gaud. (original wild population of one plant). DNA was extracted from each species using small amounts of leaf tissue produced in vitro and used for the RAPDs studies. No detectable variation was found within these populations (indicating the impoverished remaining genetic information). The value of in vitro propagation and molecular studies of reduced populations is discussed

Modeling Hawaiian Ecosystem Degradation due to Invasive Plants under Current and Future Climates

<div><p>Occupation of native ecosystems by invasive plant species alters their structure and/or function. In Hawaii, a subset of introduced plants is regarded as extremely harmful due to competitive ability, ecosystem modification, and biogeochemical habitat degradation. By controlling this subset of highly invasive ecosystem modifiers, conservation managers could significantly reduce native ecosystem degradation. To assess the invasibility of vulnerable native ecosystems, we selected a proxy subset of these invasive plants and developed robust ensemble species distribution models to define their respective potential distributions. The combinations of all species models using both binary and continuous habitat suitability projections resulted in estimates of species richness and diversity that were subsequently used to define an invasibility metric. The invasibility metric was defined from species distribution models with <0.7 niche overlap (Warrens <i>I</i>) and relatively discriminative distributions (Area Under the Curve >0.8; True Skill Statistic >0.75) as evaluated per species. Invasibility was further projected onto a 2100 Hawaii regional climate change scenario to assess the change in potential habitat degradation. The distribution defined by the invasibility metric delineates areas of known and potential invasibility under current climate conditions and, when projected into the future, estimates potential reductions in native ecosystem extent due to climate-driven invasive incursion. We have provided the code used to develop these metrics to facilitate their wider use (Code S1). This work will help determine the vulnerability of native-dominated ecosystems to the combined threats of climate change and invasive species, and thus help prioritize ecosystem and species management actions.</p></div

Hawaiian Ecosystem Modifying Invasive Plants (EMIP's) selected for this analysis.

1<p>Habitat is described by a broad habitat descriptor defining the ecotype and year naturalized (or first collected) as inferred from <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone.0095427-Wagner1" target="_blank">[43]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone.0095427-Palmer1" target="_blank">[122]</a>.</p>2<p>The moistures index developed by Price <i>et al</i>. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone.0095427-Price1" target="_blank">[42]</a> defined species specific moisture types from collection data.</p>3<p>For ease of interpretation each species was coded using a representative six letter combination.</p>4<p>Risk Assessment (RA) scores and categories defined by Dahler <i>et al.</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone.0095427-Daehler1" target="_blank">[19]</a> and Pheloung <i>et al.</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone.0095427-Pheloung1" target="_blank">[41]</a> accessed from: <a href="http://www.hear.org/pier/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.hear.org/pier/index.htm</a>.</p><p>**Based on estimates for Australia <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone.0095427-Pheloung1" target="_blank">[41]</a> accessed from: <a href="http://www.hear.org/pier/wra/australia/sepal-wra.htm" target="_blank">http://www.hear.org/pier/wra/australia/sepal-wra.htm</a>.</p

Boxplots representing the variability in each model validation metric (AUC and TSS).

<p>Boxplots are shown for each modeling approach used (GBM, Maxent and RF) and compiled for all 500 replicates. The AUC statistic ranges from 0 to 1, where 0.5 characterizes a model no better than that defined for a random distribution of presence points. The TSS validation metric ranges from −1 to 1, where a model with a score of 0 is no better than random. Notches within each boxplot delineate the 95% probability distribution.</p

Warrens <i>I</i> niche overlap metric per EMIP.

<p>The upper diagonal shows the variation in niche overlap using circle size and color (low overlap is shaded green; high overlap is shaded red; extent of overlap is indicated by dot size and red or green color saturation). The lower diagonal gives the actual overlap metric as colored by the scaling graphic. EMIP species names are here represented by both the complete scientific Latin name (y-axis) and its coded counterpart (upper x-axis) as defined in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095427#pone-0095427-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>. All insignificant (p>0.05) niche overlap metrics, as derived from a niche equivalency test, are indicated with an “X”.</p

Collection locations for the 17 invasive species analyzed.

<p>Collection locations for the 17 invasive species analyzed.</p

Jackknife validation of the EMIPs significance as compared to the invasibility metric.

<p>The y-axis defines, on a 0 to 1 scale, the number of significantly different pixels as compared to the total invasibility area metric. This metric estimates the proportion of novel habitat defined per species.</p