Bucher Solveig Franziska
Visiting researcher in 2021
solveig.franziska.bucher@uni-jena.de
I’m a plant ecologist focusing mainly on ecophysiology and phenology. My main focus is analysing adaptations of plants to climate change. In this project, I analysed the usage of private gardens as ex situ conservation site using Minuartia smejkalii, an endangered serpentinophyte endemic to Czechia as a case study. To create suitable habitats in the gardens, artificial serpentine mounds were built, combining soil from natural sites with serpentine rocks and gravel from nearby quarries. We investigated how the plants performed at ex situ conservation sites compared with plants growing in natural habitats and how well these artificial sites represented the conditions at the natural sites. We assessed plant performance using plant functional traits including tuft diameter, chlorophyll fluorescence, chlorophyll content, and specific leaf area (SLA). We found that even though abiotic factors of the ex situ conservation sites (temperature, soil properties and shading) did not entirely match the natural conditions and plant mortality was higher and performance lower under ex situ conditions, we managed to create many independent M. smejkalii populations and increase its variability in plant functional traits, which might facilitate its survival. Using private gardens as ex situ conservation sites also helped to raise awareness on the conservation of M. smejkalii through engagement of the local community and the gardeners and thus, this proves to be a useful and powerful technique in plant conservation.
Expertise
Ecophysiology
Phenology
Ethnobotany
Publications