SePPCon 2024: Conservation Tools and Programs
SePPCon 2024: Conservation Tools and Programs
Drones for natural resource management, research, and restoration planning
Susan Cohen, Peggy Mullin*, Troy Walton, Andrew Zachman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Drone Lab
Remotely sensed data can inform natural resource management, help address challenges around ecosystem services, and assist in planning for future resilience. Drones in particular, equipped with high-resolution cameras, multispectral sensors, and LiDAR technology enable precise and efficient data collection across diverse landscapes. With user-defined spatial and temporal scales, combining drone data with open-source satellite and plane imagery allows practitioners to track change over time, better understand disturbances, and characterize habitats. While never fully removing the necessity for in-situ ground measurements, drones are proven to significantly increase efficiency while providing scientists with valuable data on local trends that would otherwise be unattainable, filling data gaps on a project-level scale. Utilizing drones also facilitates accessibility to tough to reach areas while decreasing anthropogenic disturbances to vulnerable ecosystems. The adoption of drone technology in environmental management necessitates addressing various challenges including the regulatory framework, data management practices, required processing computing needs, and the expense of equipment. The Carolina Drone Lab at UNC Chapel Hill, NC specializes in combining various forms of remotely sensed data and developing approaches for applied research and management. Case uses will be presented and include the detecting submerged aquatic vegetation in marsh systems utilizing multispectral imagery and machine learning algorithms, enhancing assessment tools that use coarse satellite data as a main input, and characterizing plant communities.
iNaturalist Community Science
Vanessa Voelker*, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserve
Video start time: 9:09
iNaturalist is a community science platform designed to connect people with nature. In 2019 the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, which administers the Kentucky Natural Heritage Program, began utilizing observations of rare vascular plants from iNaturalist to update the state’s natural heritage database. This data has yielded the documentation of many new state-listed plant occurrences, updated data of older records, numerous county records, and the discovery of an extant population of a state historic species. For natural heritage programs with limited resources and small staff, the data contributions of community scientists with eyes on the ground across the state are invaluable. However, this data still requires review by knowledgeable biologists to confirm that species are identified correctly, that location information is accurate, and that the observed plants are a natural occurrence. This vetting process can be complex and time consuming, and we found that a wide variety of data quality issues can arise from the idiosyncratic ways that iNaturalist observers use the app and website. Becoming familiar with this range of issues has helped to streamline the vetting process, and communication with observers has become an important outreach and community-building activity for OKNP.
A flora in your pocket, time to rock it: FSUS apps engage in the big data age
Michael Lee*, Scott Ward*, North Carolina Botanical Garden, UNC Chapel Hill Herbarium
Video start time: 18:12
Since the 2005 initial publication of the Flora of the Southeastern United States (FSUS, aka “Weakley’s Flora”), its scope has expanded to encompass over 10,000 native and non-native plant taxa occurring across a 25 state region of the Eastern United States. As its scope and floristic coverage have grown, so too has the knowledge of its users and the formats in which they access botanical information. Because of the immense contributions of feedback, dichotomous keys, habitat information, and other ecological data, the Southeastern Flora is now perhaps the most crowd-sourced flora in the history of botany. Join Data Scientist Michael Lee and Research Botanist Scott Ward (North Carolina Botanical Garden), as they introduce the Southeastern Flora mobile app (FloraQuest) and web app (fsus.ncbg.unc.edu), and discuss their many functions and capabilities. In this talk, Michael and Scott will show the various ways in which the Southeastern Flora Team is modernizing and improving the flora, making botany accessible and incorporating the needs of various conservation agencies across the diverse Southeast.
Leveraging Natural History Collection Data for Enhanced Conservation Efforts
Jillian Goodwin* (1), Elizabeth White (2), Gil Nelson (1), Katie Pearson (3)
(1) iDigBio, Florida Museum of Natural History, (2) Florida Museum of Natural History, (3) Symbiota Support Hub, University of Kansas
Video start time: 27:45
Since 2011, Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) has served as the national coordinating center for the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). iDigBio offers access to an extensive repository of digitized natural history collection data, encompassing specimen records, images, and associated metadata. There are currently over 142 million specimen records published, 45% of which are plants. This centralized database facilitates conservation groups and researchers in utilizing comprehensive species occurrence data for research and planning. Beyond data access, iDigBio provides valuable resources and training to enhance skills in cleaning and analyzing specimen data. In addition to highlighting the extensive resources and opportunities offered by iDigBio, we will share research use cases that demonstrate the practical applications and benefits of these resources in advancing conservation efforts.
How Georgia Native Plant Society contributes to Georgia Plant Conservation Efforts
Amy Heidt* (1), Kelley Hanada* (2)
(1) Georgia Native Plant Society, Coastal Plain Chapter, (2) Georgia Native Plant Society, Stone Mountain Propagation Project
Video start time: 39:08
Our presentation will introduce the audience to GNPS and touch on the following significant GNPS conservation activities, which involve our knowledgeable and trained GNPS members as volunteers in critical plant conservation work throughout Georgia: Mission, recent growth and current reach of Georgia Native Plant Society; GNPS’ significant conservation program areas of plant rescue and conservation propagation and educating our constituents about the importance of both; GNPS rescues of rare plants along with State Botanical Garden, GA DNR and GDOT personnel (including Lupinus diffusus, and species of Sarracenia, Gentian, Scutellaria, Trillium, and Matelea) and out planting these into safe areas, where appropriate; Donating 300+ pollinator plants to University of Georgia faculty for native pollinator attraction and overwintering in blueberry orchards; Serving as plant guardians for Isoetes junciformis (for DNR/GPCA) and Lindera melissifolia (for the Jones Center/GPCA); Propagating regional ecotype plants for use by conservation partners Birds Georgia (Muhlenbergia sericea and many others) and USFWS/GPCA (Amorpha spp.) in land restoration projects; Propagating Eurybia avita for conservation out plantings at the granite outcrops of Stone Mountain Park.
The United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary Network
Marc Williams*, United Plant Savers
Video Start time: 46:35
The non-profit United Plant Savers (UpS) has for decades hosted a Botanical Sanctuary Network (BSN) that now contains close to 300 locales throughout North America. Nonetheless, numerous ecotypes of the southeastern USA exist that have yet to have a sanctuary representative and one current goal is to grow our membership regarding novel habitats. Many of the current sanctuaries are featured as examples on the UpS website and also regularly in the annual Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation. A specific focus of these places is on native medicinal plants. This allows for in situ outdoor genebanking of local chemotypes and phenotypes and subsequent planting out to suitable sites. One core concept that UpS promotes is the idea of conservation through cultivation which the BSN naturally supports. Another is plant rescues when land is threatened by development. The program also hosts a plethora of educational materials for sanctuary network participants as well as the thousands of members of the UpS organization and the public at large. A related program through UpS administers an international network known as Sacred Seeds as well. More recently a new initiative to conduct bioblitzes in the various sanctuaries is being pursued. This has brought up a host of questions around best practices especially regarding endangered, rare and threatened plants and their interface with citizen science. Thus, the UpS botanical sanctuary network operates in a multitude of ways to raise the profile of at-risk plants and continues to characterize and conserve such taxa and their related ecosystems.
A Garden’s Role in Orchid Conservation
Loy Xingwen*, Atlanta Botanical Garden
Video start time: 56:19
Botanical Gardens worldwide contribute significantly to plant conservation. But each Garden brings a unique set of skills, opportunities, and solutions to the fight for plants. The Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Southeastern Center for Conservation has developed a Species Conservation Workflow to focus its resources and drive its mission. This talk provides a glimpse of the workflow in action, with current projects involving threatened orchids of the Southeast. Species include small whorled pogonia, white fringeless orchid, and babyboot orchids of Puerto Rico. Projects like these are made possible thanks to support and help from state and federal institutions, non-profit organizations, universities, and volunteers.