Assessing the Effects of Management Interventions and Climate Variability on Reintroduced Hawaiian Rare Plants Active

Hawaiʻi is known as the “endangered species capital of the world,” an unwelcomed label brought on by more than a century of habitat destruction, invasive species spread, and pollinator and seed disperser declines. Hawaiʿi is home to 400 endangered plant species, most of which are found nowhere else in the world. Conservation managers have spent decades putting enormous effort into carefully reintroducing thousands of rare plants into protected forests, but the ability of reintroduced populations to persist over the long-term is unknown, especially as climate change shifts patterns of temperature, rainfall and species interactions.



Managers need more information to identify locations that will be the most suitable for future rare plant reintroductions. This project aims to provide rare plant managers with this information through a collaboration between researchers at the University of Hawaiʿi, the United States Geological Survey, and resource managers at the Army Natural Resources Program –Oahu (ANRPO) and the Hawaiʿi Plant Prevention Extinction Program (PEPP). The project team will synthesize data collected by ANRPO and PEPP that include an unprecedented 20 years of census data for over 300 populations of 38 rare plant species. Outcomes from the data synthesis will be shared through a series of workshops across the state, where they will also be cross-validated with the experiences and knowledge of rare plant experts, including managers and cultural practitioners.



By collaboratively identifying the management and climatic conditions that best predict the success of plant reintroductions, and where those conditions will exist in the future, this project will help ensure the survival of some treasured resources.