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Local Provenance (local + provenance)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Local provenance in rehabilitation of degraded landscapes: a case study from the Hawkesbury,Nepean catchment, Australia

AREA, Issue 3 2005
Shelley Burgin
Throughout Australia thousands of volunteers are engaged in Landcare projects that should help rehabilitate degraded landscapes. Many of these projects involve tree planting, but their seed is not necessarily of local provenance. Based on a survey of 85 Landcare groups working in the Hawkesbury,Nepean catchment, data were collected about Landcare groups' knowledge of their seed source, understanding of local provenance and the ecosystem in which they were planting trees and the source of funding for their projects. The findings from the study indicate that about one in five (21%) of the groups surveyed that introduced plant material were not aware of local provenance issues. Indirect indications were that a large number of Landcare groups state-wide may be doing more harm than good to the landscape while trying to rehabilitate it. The data also showed that one in seven (13%) of the groups funded by the Australian Government through the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) had limited awareness of local provenance issues. With millions of dollars being spent on ,works on the ground', it would be prudent to allocate some funds to document and monitor current Landcare activities, so that the environmental outcomes can be quantified and more effective Landcare policies can be developed in the future. [source]

Is local provenance important in habitat creation?

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2001
David M. Wilkinson
Summary 1Many habitat creation schemes specify that biological material of local provenance should be used in reintroductions. This has come to be the ,text book' approach. However, very little discussion of the theory underlying this idea has been published in the scientific literature. This paper aims to initiate this much-needed discussion. 2A major reason for the use of local provenance is the claimed importance of conserving locally adapted genotypes, which are assumed to show high fitness. Using both genetic arguments and a consideration of Quaternary environmental change I argue that this reason will seldom be important. 3I make tentative suggestions of when local provenance is likely to be important and when it can be given a low priority in habitat creation schemes. [source]

Detecting local adaptation in widespread grassland species , the importance of scale and local plant community

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
ARMIN BISCHOFF
Summary 1Adaptation of plant populations to local environments has been shown in many species but local adaptation is not always apparent and spatial scales of differentiation are not well known. In a reciprocal transplant experiment we tested whether: (i) three widespread grassland species are locally adapted at a European scale; (ii) detection of local adaptation depends on competition with the local plant community; and (iii) local differentiation between neighbouring populations from contrasting habitats can be stronger than differentiation at a European scale. 2Seeds of Holcus lanatus, Lotus corniculatus and Plantago lanceolata from a Swiss, Czech and UK population were sown in a reciprocal transplant experiment at fields that exhibit environmental conditions similar to the source sites. Seedling emergence, survival, growth and reproduction were recorded for two consecutive years. 3The effect of competition was tested by comparing individuals in weeded monocultures with plants sown together with species from the local grassland community. To compare large-scale vs. small-scale differentiation, a neighbouring population from a contrasting habitat (wet-dry contrast) was compared with the ,home' and ,foreign' populations. 4In P. lanceolata and H. lanatus, a significant home-site advantage was detected in fitness-related traits, thus indicating local adaptation. In L. corniculatus, an overall superiority of one provenance was found. 5The detection of local adaptation depended on competition with the local plant community. In the absence of competition the home-site advantage was underestimated in P. lanceolata and overestimated in H. lanatus. 6A significant population differentiation between contrasting local habitats was found. In some traits, this small-scale was greater than large-scale differentiation between countries. 7Our results indicate that local adaptation in real plant communities cannot necessarily be predicted from plants grown in weeded monocultures and that tests on the relationship between fitness and geographical distance have to account for habitat-dependent small-scale differentiation. Considering the strong small-scale differentiation, a local provenance from a different habitat may not be the best choice in ecological restoration if distant populations from a more similar habitat are available. [source]