Living collections are important repositories of biodiversity. Understanding the history of domestication in paperbark maple, which is endangered in its native habitat in China, can help us better conserve the species through targeted collection.
Understanding evolutionary relationships and classification of Carex, one of the largest flowering plant groups of the northern hemisphere is key to conservation, restoration, and ecological study in the group.
Oak conservation depends on our understanding of what species there are and how they will evolve in response to climate change. Understanding evolutionary history and gene flow is thus key to understanding oak diversity.
Using evolutionary and functional diversity to plan ecological restoration projects can help us build restorations that establish more quickly, last longer, and require less maintenance.
Living plant collections play an important role in conserving plant biodiversity. We collect and cultivate threatened tree species, like Quercus oglethorpensis (Oglethorpe oak), to learn about and safeguard important sources of tree genetic diversity.
Living plant collections play an important role in conserving plant biodiversity. We collect and cultivate threatened tree species to learn about and safeguard important sources of tree genetic diversity.
We are quantifying how many individuals need to be kept in botanic garden collections to best preserve genetic variation, using case studies across the tree of life, including many threatened oak species, which will provide advice for future seed collections.
We are using DNA data to further understand the reproductive biology of an under-studied oak, Quercus havardii, which will help inform seed collection strategies and collection management.
We are using DNA data to better understand the fragmentation and recent history of populations of threatened species especially oaks, ashes and magnolias, in the southeastern and western US.
We are assessing whether important seed collections and in situ preserves have sufficiently protected the genetic diversity of Fraxinus trees in the wild.
