Plant conservation in the Aeolian Islands: bringing species back from the brink of extinction

The Aeolian Islands harbor high plant diversity, counting about 750 native taxa, of which eight are endemic to the archipelago. The recent age of the islands and their continuous volcanic activity impacted on the number of endemic taxa and contributed to the fragmentation of their populations. These taxa are particularly precious for their biogeographical value but are at high risk of extinction due to their reduced distribution and human activities’ impact. The Seed Bank of the University of Catania is involved in two international projects for the conservation of four threatened Aeolian plants. The Interreg Italia-Malta SiMaSeed PLUS deals with the reinforcement of Anthemis aeolica Lojac., reduced to a single population on the islet of Lisca Bianca, close to Panarea. The LIFE project SEEDFORCE focuses on the conservation of 29 Annex II species of the 92/43 EU Directive “Habitat” with unfavorable conservation status. Of these, three species grow in Aeolian islands: Cytisus aeolicus Guss. and Silene hicesiae Brullo & Signor., endemic to the archipelago, and Eokochia saxicola (Guss.) Freitag & G.Kadereit, endemic to the South Tyrrhenian Sea. Both projects aim at using the seeds for ex-situ conservation and to produce plants for the reinforcement of extant populations or for their reintroduction in sites where they went extinct. Seed germination and plant establishment are key stages of plant life but few data are available on the four target species. Therefore, germination and cultivation protocols are being developed, genetic analysis of the donor populations will inform on the best provenance of the seeds to be used, and the trophic relationships (pollinators) are being investigated. To ensure that the conditions in the intervention sites are suitable for the maintenance of viable populations threats are analyzed and mitigated. Finally, ex-ante and ex-post monitoring will produce data on the reinforcements’ success and on the demography of these species.