BajaNews
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San Diegan finds rare plants on Guadalupe Island
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/16/postcard-guad...
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Jon P. Rebman, curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum, recently returned from a research trip to Mexico's Guadalupe Island. Here's
a summary of the trip, which included the possible discovery of a new type of plant. Dr. Rebman wrote the report for Science Quest:
During the previous expedition ten years ago, I swore that I would never return again until the goats had been removed due to the extreme impacts of
their grazing activities. It looked a bit like a lunar landscape at that time with only a few plant species still remaining on very steep cliff areas
and large, old (probably more than 150 years) trees that were unable to reproduce because the seedlings were being gobbled up as fast as they could
germinate.
However, due to the major efforts of the Mexican Government and a non-profit conservation organization (GECI) many of the non-native, feral animals
are now gone. The goats were removed a few years ago and only a few “judas” goats remain and the packs of feral dogs are now gone. They are now
working on the feral cats that have caused the extinction of the Guadalupe Storm Petrel and (that) they are also causing severe impacts to the native
and endemic bird species.
Plant life of Guadalupe Island.
During this recent trip, I was very pleasantly surprised to see a major difference in the vegetation. Many of the native and endemic plant species
were coming off the cliffs and were re-populating many of the island habitats. Also, in the last few years Steve Junak and others have re-discovered
some species that were thought to be extinct (e.g., Satureja palmeri) and even documented a large shrub (Ceanothus arboreus) that had never been
documented on the island before. This species may have had a very large and long-lived seed bank and have now finally been able to establish without
the impacts of goats.
The reason for this visit was to see this island in an El Nino year and see how the plants are responding. The group of people involved included
myself, Bart O’Brien and Sula Vandeplank from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Steve Junak from Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Tom Oberbauer with the
County of San Diego, but also an botanical expert on Guadalupe, Alan Harper who facilitated the trip finanicially and I think through the Jiji
Foundation (need to check this with him), and Julio the GECI person in charge of the conservation efforts on the island, and his great staff at the
biological research station of the Island. The group of participants are part of a larger binational project to determine the rare plant species of
northwestern Baja California although none of our Mexican colleagues were able to go on this trip due to time contraints.
During our trip, we were all surprised to see so many native plants coming back and we discovered a few species that have not been seen in many, many
years e.g., Hesperocnide tenella (also maybe a new taxon on this island, but it needs more taxonomic work), Pellaea mucronata, new populations of the
“previously thought to be extinct” Satureja palmeri. Throughout the trip we found totally new populations of the endemic plants that were almost
driven to extinction and are now trying to make a come back. Our biggest discovery is a plant in the Asteraceae found near the pine populations that
might turn out to be not only a new species, but maybe even a new genus. We will need to do some extensive taxonomic work on the specimens once they
are dry so it may take some time to verify this though.
This was very exciting trip, although exhausting physically due to the steep terrain, difficult rock substrates, strong winds, etc. But, it was all
worth it!
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DianaT
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That is exciting. It is great to see positive ecological changes happening.
Dr. Rebman is the one eco mujeres is going to check with regarding the unique plant in the San Hipolito area.
He is the curator of the Department of Botany at the San Diego Natural History museum and the photos and specimens of that unique plant at the museum
are from one of his research trips.
I posted the link in the other thread to The Flora of Baja California and for any Baja plant enthusiasts, it is worth checking out.
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Mexitron
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That's great to hear the island's making a comeback! Thanks for posting Diane. I would love to go to Guadalupe one of these years---guess I'd better
start checking that link you posted more often to watch for expeditions...plant nerds unite!
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DianaT
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mexitron
That's great to hear the island's making a comeback! Thanks for posting Diane. I would love to go to Guadalupe one of these years---guess I'd better
start checking that link you posted more often to watch for expeditions...plant nerds unite! |
You really need to meet las ecomujeres, Debra and Pacifica from Mulege and Berkeley-----you do have their website???? If not
http://www.lasecomujeres.org/
Boy, do I need to start studying!
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Mexitron
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Thanks for the tip Diane...it'd be fun to go out botanizing with them for sure.
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