| Abstract Detail
Conservation Biology Cox, Robert D. [1], Allen, Edith [1], Allen, Michael F. [2]. Distribution of rare plants in Riverside County, California. SOUTHERN California has a high proportion of rare and endemic plant species that are severely impacted by urban development. Surveys of these species were undertaken as part of the multi-species habitat conservation plan required under the Endangered Species Act. In 2002, descriptions of historic locations were obtained for 32 species of rare plants in Riverside County by querying local and national herbaria and museums. Each described location was converted to geographic coordinates, and an attempt was made to visit the location and determine whether historically known populations of rare plants had persisted. At each visited location, plant community composition data was collected, as was population data about the target species. More than 600 locations for the 32 species were visited from 2003-2005. Rare plant populations were observed at approximately 38% of the historic locations visited. However, habitat occupancy varied greatly by species, with some species present in almost no historic locations, and others present in the majority of locations visited. More than 200 new locations for the rare plants in question were also documented during the study. Habitat occupancy and percent cover of exotic species was also analyzed in connection with various indices of disturbance, including widlfire history and nitrogen deposition from airborne pollution.
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1 - University of California Riverside, Department of Botany & Plant Sciences, Riverside, California, 92521-0124, USA
2 - University of California, Riverside, Center for Conservation Biology, Riverside, California, 92521
Keywords:
California
rare plant conservation.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 43-2
Location: 108/Tehama
Date: Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
Time: 10:30 AM
Abstract ID:600 |
