Questions and Challenges for Island Conservation
Joyce Maschinski博士站在下加利福尼亚州海岸外的瓜达卢佩岛的高原上.D., 在一个多世纪以来受到动物入侵的影响后，一个岛屿恢复了松树和柏树森林和其他栖息地，你能欣赏到这一美景吗. She also came to appreciate the power of fog, as it dramatically rolled over the chaparral, 在夏季干燥的季节里，沉淀的水滴支撑着岛上的植被. These are just a few of the traits shared by many of the other islands off the coast of California and Baja California; stretching from the Bay Area to halfway down the Baja Peninsula. On each of these islands, 保护工作在恢复这种独特的植被方面取得了巨大进展. But many challenges remain.
These challenges are too large for any one entity. But fortunately, 有许多实体——土地管理公司和大陆合作伙伴——在美国和印度的两个岛屿上工作.S. and Mexico. Common concerns for endangered species, vegetation, 和退化的栖息地刺激了拉斯加州岛的形成, Colaboración Botánica/加州群岛植物合作组织(中国工商银行). It was a meeting of ICBC that brought Joyce out to Guadalupe Island.
Joyce’s vast experience with reintroductions, 以及利用方案协调会再介绍数据库中的项目的能力, as well as the CPC Best Practices Guidelines, 促使工商银行的会议组织者邀请到这里参加. 当小组讨论从一个或多个岛屿上灭绝的爱赢平台重新回归的可能性时，他们寻求她的意见, but still found on others. 重新引种，特别是当种子在岛屿间运输时，不是一件小事. 从直觉上看，在有植物生长的地方，用种子和外植来促进物种生长, concerns for genetic flow, habitat suitability, threat abatement, climate change, and more, all need to be weighed.
Removing invasive animals (goats, sheep, cattle, deer, etc.)在恢复许多常见和爱赢平台物种方面迈出了不可思议的一步. Yet, 这还不足以恢复一切，这些物种仍然可以扮演关键的生态角色. 濒危物种可重新引入或进行种群增加计划. 乔伊斯在瓜达卢佩岛参加工商银行会议时，考虑的两种植物之一是圣克鲁兹岛岩芥(Sibara filifolia), a diminutive annual with flowers of a lovely purple .
Though still found on San Clemente and Santa Catalina islands, off the coast of southern California, Santa Cruz Island rockcress has been lost from its namesake. And the island’s caretakers, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), 用卡特琳娜岛保护协会和南加州大学创建的模型彻底搜索了它. 该模型允许研究人员识别合适的栖息地，从而指导在卡塔琳娜岛寻找新种群, but as yet, it is still missing from Santa Cruz Island. 但这种一年生草本植物在野外特别难找到, and it may still persist in the soil seed bank. 这种可能性让工行的一些成员在考虑重新上市时犹豫了一下. Mixing populations, of even the same species, does pose some risks, especially in the absence of genetic studies. 在圣克鲁斯岛继续进行搜索的同时，TNC对进行种子试验持开放态度.
在用种子在圣克鲁斯岛重新引入这种物种之前，还有很多问题需要回答. During the meeting, Joyce walked the group through many of them, providing context drawn from research and experience. In the end, when the decisions are made, 希望这三个岛屿上都有健康的人口——能够自我维持的人口, large enough to fulfill their ecological functions, 并且能够承受现有的威胁和日益加剧的气候变化的威胁. 也许乔伊斯将来去圣克鲁斯岛的时候，她能看到雾气在短席的岩芥上翻滚, returned to their home.
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