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Quasi in situ: a bridge between ex situ and in situ conservation of plants

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Abstract

Plant conservation urgently needs a concept that would unify different aspects of population viability as parts of conservation methodology. Such unification is especially lacking for ex situ conservation. We introduce a novel conservation approach in which ex situ collections maintained in natural or semi-natural environment and preserving both neutral and adaptive genetic diversity are a part of a complementary ex situ–in situ conservation strategy. Our approach is the first that explicitly takes into account ecologically significant (i.e. adaptive) variation of plants in both ex situ and in situ conservation actions. Using this approach we provide detailed guidelines for (1) representative sampling of the populations; (2) collection maintenance; and (3) utilization for in situ actions.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dror Hawlena, Yuval Sapir, Yehoshua Shkedy and Margareta Walczak for helpful discussions and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that helped to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Life Sciences Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Sergei Volis

  2. Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Dead Sea, Israel

    Michael Blecher

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  1. Sergei Volis
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Correspondence to Sergei Volis.

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Volis, S., Blecher, M. Quasi in situ: a bridge between ex situ and in situ conservation of plants. Biodivers Conserv 19, 2441–2454 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9849-2

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