Creating viable populations of Canadian plant species at risk through conservation translocation and monitoring

植物占加拿大《濒危物种法》（SARA）所列物种的26%。许多濒危植物生长在南部，那里的森林和草地在农场和郊区之间以小块的形式存在。至关重要的是要保护濒危植物物种的剩余种群，并保护它们的栖息地。然而，为了真正恢复这些物种，我们还需要增加健康种群的总数。将处于危险中的物种释放到其历史范围内的合适栖息地被称为“保护转移”。澳大利亚和美国多年来一直在使用保护易位来帮助濒危植物，但加拿大对这一技术的研究很少。 我们项目的目标是在受保护的土地上建立加拿大植物物种的可行种群。我们的团队包括加拿大自然保护协会（NCC）-土地保护的领导者;卡尔加里动物园基金会-保护易位的国际专家;和Kayanase -第一民族经营的环境恢复公司和本地植物苗圃。我们将建立NCC属性的保护易位试验，与生境适宜性模型指导的选址。我们将测量存活率和种群增长率，并将其与栖息地条件、威胁和管理措施联系起来。我们将使用遗传标记来测量稀有植物物种的孤立种群内部和之间的遗传多样性，以了解这些种群是否遭受近亲繁殖，以及它们与美国种群的区别。 我们的研究将（1）支持增加知识和能力，以使用植物易位作为恢复工具，（2）增加保护区内稀有植物种群的数量和规模，促进SARA所列物种的恢复，（3）收集有关加拿大一些最稀有植物的生活史，栖息地需求，遗传多样性，种群趋势，和繁殖技术;（4）为年轻的保护生物学家提供独特的珍稀植物保护培训机会。

Plants make up 26% of all species listed under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA). Many at-risk plants grow in the south, where forests and grasslands exist as small fragments between farms and suburbs. It is crucial to protect the remaining populations of plant species at risk, and to conserve their habitats. However, for true recovery of these species we also need to increase the total number of healthy populations. Releasing species at risk in suitable habitat within their historical range is called "conservation translocation". Australia and the United States have been using conservation translocation to help endangered plants for many years, but little research has been done on this technique in Canada. The goal of our project is to establish viable populations of Canadian plant species at risk on protected lands. Our team includes the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) - a leader in land protection; the Calgary Zoo Foundation - international experts in conservation translocation; and Kayanase - a First Nations-run environmental restoration firm and native plant nursery. We will establish conservation translocation trials on NCC properties, with site selection directed by habitat suitability models. We will measure survival and population growth rates and link them to habitat conditions, threats, and management treatments. We will use genetic markers to measure genetic diversity within and between isolated populations of rare plant species to understand whether these populations are suffering from inbreeding, and how distinct they are from populations in the United States. Our research will (1) support increased knowledge and capacity to use plant translocation as a recovery tool, (2) increase the number and size of rare plant populations in protected areas, contributing towards the recovery of species listed under SARA, (3) gather critical information on the life history of some of Canada's rarest plants, their habitat needs, their genetic diversity, population trends, and propagation techniques, and (4) provide unique training opportunities for young conservation biologists in rare plant conservation.