Abstract Detail

The Contribution of Regional Flora Projects to the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

Baldwin, Bruce [1], Markos, Staci [1], Alexander, Jason [1], Mishler, Brent [1].

Facilitating California plant conservation through the Jepson Flora Project.

The California Floristic Province, as a global-scale biodiversity hotspot, and the adjacent California deserts are noted for floristic richness, endemism, and, increasingly, endangerment. The Jepson Flora Project (JFP) is a broad collaboration among California botanists, based at the Jepson Herbarium at the University of California, Berkeley, which has evolved over the past quarter-century to ensure that accurate, scientifically informed data on Californian plant diversity is readily available to scientists and conservationists. After print publication of The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California in 2012, a freely available, online California flora – the Jepson eFlora (https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/) – was released and has been revised continually. This living floristic resource allows the JFP to incorporate new plant discoveries into floristic treatments much more quickly than would be possible in print format and to prioritize revisions that incorporate newly documented minimum-rank taxa (species, subspecies, and varieties) of special conservation importance. This prioritization is important in part so that field and herbarium botanists can identify recently documented native and naturalized plants for California that might otherwise escape detection during scientific and conservation-related studies or surveys, such as those that are required for most development projects in the state. A recently incorporated feature of the Jepson eFlora is the ability to instantly filter keys to include only those taxa known to occur within particular geographic subdivisions of California, thus greatly facilitating plant identification and documentation. Integration of the Jepson eFlora with other floristic resources of the JFP and the collection records of Consortium of California Herbaria (CCH) has aided flora-wide conservation efforts for California. For example, spatial phylogenetic analyses using Jepson eFlora and CCH data allowed for greater understanding of centers of endemism and a new, state-of-the-art conservation prioritization for areas throughout the state (using a novel algorithm that takes into account phylogenetic complementarity, habitat intactness, and current protection status). Such integration of detailed knowledge of systematics, phylogeny, and distributions, not possible yet on a worldwide basis, is one of the values added by regionally focused floristic projects, which fill important niches in national and global conservation strategies.

Related Links:
Jepson eFlora

1 - University and Jepson Herbaria, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building #2465, Berkeley, California, 94720-2465, United States

Keywords:
California
Floristics
conservation
endangered species
eFloras
biodiversity hotspot
filtered keys.

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Session: C10, The Contribution of Regional Flora Projects to the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
Location: /
Date: Friday, July 23rd, 2021
Time: 11:15 AM(EDT)
Number: C10006
Abstract ID:139
Candidate for Awards:None