The Race Against Plant Extinction with Wesley Knapp [Zoom]
Date/Time
Thursday, February 9, 2023
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Categories
Extinction rates are expected to increase as we move through the Anthropocene, our current geologic era where humanity is the dominant influence on the climate and environment, yet we have a poor understanding of what plants have already gone extinct and the reasons for these extinctions. Every extinction is a conservation failure and identifying the reasons for past extinction events may help us prevent future extinctions.
In 2020, I was lead author on an examination of the extinct plants of the USA and Canada. We discovered 65 plant taxa (51 species, 14 infraspecies) are believed extinct from the continental United States and Canada, with one known from Virginia. Single-site endemics represent 64% of all known plant extinctions in the USA and Canada. Currently, no method exists to identify single-site endemics, despite the disproportionate impact on biodiversity conservation.
I will present preliminary data on plants of one known occurrence (OKO), which includes single-site endemics. These OKO plants need immediate in situ and ex situ conservation attention to prevent extinctions. These species are often so rare that there are few herbarium vouchers. This creates challenges for understating the taxonomic merit of these OKO species and the accurate identification of new populations.
Franklin Tree flower (Franklinia alatamaha) extinct in the the wild. Photo by Derek Ramsey CC BY-SA 2.5
Wesley Knapp is the Chief Botanist at NatureServe, a leading biodiversity conservation non-profit in the United States. NatureServe leverages the power of science, data, and technology to guide biodiversity conservation and stewardship. Wes has over 20 years of experience working in the NatureServe Network as a Botanist and Ecologist with both the Maryland and North Carolina Natural Heritage Programs. He has extensive field experience across much of the United States with additional fieldwork experience in Australia, Canada, and Central America. His research includes the first examination of the extinct plants of the United States and Canada, new plant species discoveries, and treatments of plant groups in various Floras and Manuals. He has also published two books including, Vascular Plants of Maryland, USA: A Comprehensive Account of the State’s Botanical Diversity which is freely available through the Smithsonian Scholarly Press. His research interests include identifying and preventing plant extinction events, describing undescribed plant species, systematics, ecology, and taxonomy. He has a B.S. from Catawba College, a M.S. from Delaware State University, and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Alan Weakley’s lab. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Scientific America.
