EX SITU CONSERVATION of OAK (QUERCUS L.) in BOTANIC GARDENS: a NORTH AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE by Raakel Toppila a Thesis Submitted
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
EX SITU CONSERVATION OF OAK (QUERCUS L.) IN BOTANIC GARDENS: A NORTH AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE by Raakel Toppila A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Public Horticulture Summer 2012 Copyright 2012 Raakel Toppila All Rights Reserved EX SITU CONSERVATION OF OAK (QUERCUS L.) IN BOTANIC GARDENS: A NORTH AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE by Raakel Toppila Approved: __________________________________________________________ Robert E. Lyons, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: __________________________________________________________ Blake E. Meyers, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Robin W. Morgan, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Approved: __________________________________________________________ Charles G. Riordan, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to those who supported and guided me throughout the research and writing of this thesis. To my thesis committee members, Dr. Robert Lyons, Dr. Andrea Kramer and Dr. Randy Wisser, thank you for your mentorship and enthusiasm throughout the process. Thank you to the Longwood Foundation, Longwood Gardens and the University of Delaware for providing the support needed to carry out this work. Additional funding came from a U.S. Forest Service Challenge Cost Share Grant to Botanic Gardens Conservation International U.S. Thank you to the many herbaria and botanists who provide provenance data for the study species and the botanic gardens that provided information about their collections. Particular thanks to the ten botanic gardens that provided leaf tissue for genetic analysis, and the site managers who provided information and access to natural populations of Quercus georgiana for leaf tissue collection. Thank you to Dr. Larry Stritch, National Botanist for the U.S. Forest Service, who suggested and supported ex situ research on these rare oak species, as well as the volunteers and employees at the Chicago Botanic Garden, especially Jeremie Fant, John Keller, Sonia Doshi, Jairus Rossi and Andrea Kramer who spent countless hours in the lab to collect the data used for this study. Finally, thank you to my family and friends who have supported me through my academic pursuits and especially to my husband, Matthew Pelletier, who stood beside me through it all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Loss of Biodiversity and Role of Plant Conservation at Botanic Gardens ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Why Oaks? ................................................................................................ 3 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 6 2.1 What is Ex Situ Conservation? .................................................................. 6 2.1.1 Seed Banks .................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 Cryopreservation ........................................................................... 7 2.1.3 Tissue Culture ................................................................................ 8 2.1.4 Cultivation of Living Collections ................................................ 10 2.2 Ex situ Plant Conservation at Botanic Gardens ....................................... 10 2.2.1 Oaks at Botanic Gardens ............................................................. 12 2.3 The Role of Genetics in Ex Situ Conservation ........................................ 13 2.3.1 Genetic Drift and Inbreeding Depression .................................... 15 2.3.2 Outbreeding Depression and Genetic Swamping ........................ 16 2.3.3 Quantitative Genetics .................................................................. 17 3. SURVEY OF EX SITU LIVING COLLECTIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE OAK TAXA ............................................................................................. 20 3.1 Methods ................................................................................................... 20 3.2 Results ..................................................................................................... 22 4. DETAILED SURVEY OF EX SITU LIVING COLLECTIONS OF FOUR OAK TAXA OF CONSERVATION CONCERN ................................................... 24 iv 4.1 Methods ................................................................................................... 24 4.2 Results ..................................................................................................... 26 4.2.1 Quality of Collection Data and Representation of Wild Populations .................................................................................. 27 5. MOLECULAR GENETIC DIVERISTY OF QUERCUS GEORGIANA IN WILD POPULATIONS AND EX SITU LIVING COLLECTIONS ........................ 30 5.1 Materials and Methods ............................................................................ 30 5.1.1 Study Species ............................................................................... 30 5.1.2 Study Sites ................................................................................... 31 5.1.3 Collections ................................................................................... 33 5.1.4 Molecular Data ............................................................................ 35 5.1.5 Analysis ....................................................................................... 36 5.2 Results ..................................................................................................... 38 5.2.1 Descriptive Statistics of Loci ....................................................... 38 5.2.2 Descriptive Statistics of Populations ........................................... 39 5.2.3 Population Genetic Structure ....................................................... 40 6. PHENOTYPIC DIVERSITY IN QUERCUS GEORGIANA .................................... 50 6.1 Methods ................................................................................................... 50 6.2 Results ..................................................................................................... 50 7. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................... 52 7.1 Survey of Ex Situ Living Collections of North American Native Oak Taxa and Four Oaks of Conservation Concern ................................ 52 7.2 Molecular Genetic Diversity of Quercus georgiana in Wild Populations and Ex Situ Living Collections ............................................ 55 7.3 Comparison of Genetic Diversity in Ex Situ Living Collections of Quercus georgiana to Genetic Diversity in Wild Populations ................ 60 7.4 Phenotypic Diversity in Quercus georgiana ........................................... 64 7.5 Limitations of the Study and Future Research......................................... 66 7.6 Conclusions ............................................................................................. 68 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 70 v Appendix A. NUMBER OF BOTANIC GARDENS GROWING 97 OAK TAXA NATIVE NORTH OF MEXICO AND CORRESPONDING NATURESERVE CONSERVATION STATUS RANKS, NATURESERVE CONSERVATION STATUS ADJUSTED RANKS AND IUCN RED-LIST RANKS………..............85 B. 277 BOTANIC GARDENS GROWING 97 OAK TAXA NATIVE NORTH OF MEXICO…… .................................................................................................... 89 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. NatureServe conservation status ranks. ................................................... 21 Table 2. Representation of NatureServe ranked North American native oak taxa versus North American native oak taxa in living collections. ......... 23 Table 3. Summary of four oak taxa of conservation concern, status in the wild, distribution, conservation ranks, and habitat descriptions.............. 25 Table 4. Summary of living collections of four oak taxa of conservation concern..................................................................................................... 27 Table 5. Quercus georgiana study populations. .................................................... 33 Table 6. Living collections of Quercus georgiana within ten U.S. botanic gardens that were used for comparison to wild populations.................... 34 Table 7. Summary of eight oak microsatellite loci derived from both wild and living collections ............................................................................... 36 Table 8. Summary statistics for Quercus georgiana by locus ............................... 39 Table 9. Summary statistics for Quercus georgiana by population ...................... 40 Table 10. Results from Analysis of