AT22-174 Webinar Big Bend Rare Cactus Species

Webinar Title: AT22-174 Webinar Big Bend Rare Cactus Species

AT-VMS: AT: Native Plant Society of Texas (Enter AT#, Class Title as posted, Name of NPSOT Chapter, and Presenter)

Comments: AT22-174 Webinar Big Bend Rare Cactus Species, Austin Chapter, Presenters: Chris Best and Carolyn Whiting (AT=1h)

Webinar Date: 03/15/2022
Webinar Time: 7:00p-8:00p

Event Summary:
Learn about plants at Big Bend National Park.

Event Description:
We are thrilled to welcome our guest speakers, Chris Best and Carolyn Whiting, who will be speaking to us about population sizes of federally listed plants at Big Bend National Park.

Conservation and management of rare plants requires an understanding of the size and distribution of their populations. It is usually impossible to count every individual of a species, so researchers need to estimate population size and distribution through sampling and statistical analyses. However, the extremely uneven distribution of many rare plants creates special problems. Rare plant studies often take short cuts by establishing fixed “monitoring plots” in the known patches of a species—but this type of plot doesn’t accurately estimate population sizes.

To estimate population sizes of 4 listed plants at Big Bend National Park (Guadalupe fescue, Chisos hedgehog cactus, Lloyd’s mariposa cactus, and bunched cory cactus) data was collected from arrays of transects or plots. As expected, thetarget species had patchy spatial distributions. The survey methods resulted in the discovery of new areas where the target species occur. The researchers found that the population sizes were larger than had been previously estimated. Their next goal is to use these methods to measure population sizes over time.

Cost: Free

Registration @ Meeting Registration – Zoom

Instructor/Presenter:
Chris Best, Carolyn Whiting

Organization Website:
Austin Chapter, Native Plant Society of Texas – Promoting education on, research into, and the use of native plants in our wildscapes and landscapes. (npsot.org)

Sponsoring Organization:
NPSOT, Austin Chapter