Malmequer/ Estreleira (Argyranthemum thalassophilum)
Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 10251651
The Selvagens Islands is an isolated oceanic archipelago on the Atlantic Ocean, 100 miles away from the Canary Islands and 160 miles from Madeira. The archipelago consists of three small islands and several islets, and they are considered part of the Macaronesian biogeographic area. They are of volcanic origin (as occurs with all the Macaronesian archipelagos), emerged during the late Miocene (ca. 10 mya). Selvagens Islands have a total area of 283 hectares (2.83 km²), uninhabited except for the wardens of the Madeira Natural Park. With the exception of the largest island, the rest of the archipelago has never suffered from any human influence (including the introduction of alien species), an extremely rare situation for Atlantic islands.
The Selvagens Islands are a Nature Reserve since 1971. Several habitats from the Selvagens have been declared “Habitats of Community Interest” (HCI) under the Habitats Directive of the European Union (Council Directive 92/43/EEC), and the entire archipelago is considered as a “Site of Community Importance” (SCI) under the Natura 2000 Network. In addition, the Selvagens Islands have been tentatively designed as a World Heritage Site (Ref. no. 1742) by the UNESCO since 2002.
The Selvagens Islands are home of over 100 plant species, including 9 endemic taxa to the archipelago (the Selvagens show the highest rate of endemicity per square meter within all the Macaronesia). Some of these endemics have been included within the Top 100 priority Macaronesian plants, and three are extremely rare with a population sizes below 250 individuals: Argyranthemum thalassophilum, Asparagus nesiotes subsp. nesiotes and Euphorbia anachoreta. The last two taxa have a population below 50 individuals.
All taxa included in this project are critically endangered because their narrow distribution and number of mature (reproductive) individuals. The target species represent one third of the entire endemic flora to the Selvagens Islands. No human activity is detected in this area, because visits are restricted by the Natural Park. Thus, stochastic phenomena, such as a hypothetical increase of the sea level caused by the global warming (the islands are, in average, only 50 m above the sea level), storms or landslides, are the main threats to this flora. The extremely low population sizes of these species (well below the Minimum Viable Population, MVP) make them especially vulnerable to the occurrence of any stochastic event.
The main objectives of this project are:
1. To improve the knowledge of the conservation status of the endemic flora of the Selvagens Islands through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates demography, genetics and ecology of the 3 taxa.
2. To detect all the threats (current and possible) to the target species.
3. To carry out a demographic study which will include the realization of the fine-scale populations’ cartography with a high-resolution GPS (each individual by will be geo-referenced) and the elaboration of a protocol on the populations monitoring for further actions by members of the Natural Park staff.
4. To describe the plant communities and the ecological characteristics of the sites where the selected species are occurring.
5. To carry out a genetic study using hypervariable markers (fingerprinting markers) of all individuals of the target species.
6. With the genetic information obtained, we will be able to design the most suitable germplasm collection strategy. Thus, an ex situ sampling with a genetic basis will be carried out, which will guarantee that the collected seed stock is representative of the genetic diversity of the studied species.
7. The genetic studies will also provide useful information in case of future reintroductions or reinforcements to the natural populations since we will know the genotype of all the sampled individuals as well as the population genetic structure. Therefore, any action taken will have more chances to be successful.
8. The maintenance of an ex situ collection that includes seeds and also life plants with educational purposes.
Project number: 10251651
Awarded amount: $10,000
Awarded date: 05-08-2011
Continent: Europe
Country: Portugal
Jordi López-Pujol
Botanic Institute of Barcelona (CSIC-ICUB)
Passeig del Migdia, s/n
Barcelona
Catalonia
08038
Spain
Tel: +34-932890611
Mob: +34-653212402
Fax: +34-932890614