CRB: Dispersal and Disturbance as Factors Limiting the Distribution of Rare Plant Species

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Conservation biology and population biology suffer from an almost complete lack of information on how new populations of rare species become established. This project will investigate the roles of dispersal and disturbance in the formation of new populations by experimentally introducing seeds of 14 rare plant species into numerous sites at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, which appear to be suitable for the species but where the species do not occur. The sites will be censused in subsequent years to determine if populations of rare species become established on these sites. Transplants of seedlings and juveniles, exclosures and other procedures will be used to identify the stages at which population establishment fails in certain species and sites. The results will be important to restoration biology by developing new methods to establish additional populations of rare species and so prevent their extinction.