Andrea Kramer

• PhD
• Researcher at Chicago Botanic Garden

Evaluating restoration practices such as admixture provenancing or mixing of multiple source populations for greater intraspecific variation in plant restorations helps to understand the utility of the practice in different scenarios. We do not know whether any population mixtures in admixture provenancing will deliver positive outcomes when intera...

Exposure to competition from invasive plants over multiple generations, or multigenerational invasive exposure can drive rapid native plant trait change. While invasive plant effects can be concentrated belowground, few studies consider native plant root trait responses to multigenerational invasive exposure. So, here we quantified root and shoot t...

Exposure to competition from invasive plants over multiple generations, or multigenerational invasive exposure can drive rapid native plant trait change. While invasive plant effects can be concentrated belowground, few studies consider native plant root trait responses to multigenerational invasive exposure. So, here we quantified root and shoot t...

Plant production practices can influence the genetic diversity of cultivated plant materials and, ultimately, their potential to adapt to a reintroduction site. A common step in the plant production process is the application of seed pretreatment to alleviate physiological seed dormancy and successfully germinate seeds. In production settings, the...

Phylogenetic and functional diversity are theorised to increase invasion resistance. Experimentally testing whether plant communities higher in these components of diversity are less invasible is an important step for guiding restoration designs. To investigate how phylogenetic and functional diversity of vegetation affect invasion resistance in a...

The U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to accelerate actions to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems, and re-establish ecosystem functioning and species diversity. The practice of ecological restoration has made great progress in recent decades, as has recognition of the importance of species diversity to maintaining the...

Premise: Living collections maintained for generations are at risk of diversity loss, inbreeding, and adaptation to cultivation. To address these concerns, the zoo community uses pedigrees to track individuals and implement crosses that maximize founder contributions and minimize inbreeding. Using a pedigree management approach, we demonstrate how...

Numerous factors can influence the ability to successfully procure and use seeds to support plant reintroductions, including challenges with seed collection, storage, and germination. Viola species (Violaceae) are often missing from regional restoration activities because of such obstacles. Using 6 Viola species native to prairie and woodland habit...

If sufficient seedling establishment can be achieved, seed‐based restoration provides an affordable, active restoration approach that can be implemented quickly at scale. However, establishment has served as a major restoration bottleneck, highlighting the need for improved understanding of seed germination niche and interactions with site conditio...

Agricultural production practices can decrease genetic diversity in managed plant species meant for conservation programs. In this study we exposed seeds of three Viola species to different dormancy breaking conditions and show how prioritizing rapid germination likely imposes artificial selection, leading to selective sweeps and a genetic bottlene...

Seed sourcing decisions affect short‐ and long‐term restoration outcomes. Seeds sourced closer to restoration sites are likely to be better adapted to local conditions and therefore may perform better than those sourced farther away, following assumptions of local adaptation. However, plants may not be adapted to future conditions under climate cha...

The prediction that higher biodiversity leads to denser niche packing and thus higher community resistance to invasion has long been studied, with species richness as the predominant measure of diversity. However, few studies have explored how phylogenetic and functional diversity, which should represent niche space more faithfully than taxonomic d...

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but wit...

The restoration of oak woodlands often requires removal and management of woody invasive plants. This can trigger germination of the soil seed bank, which can alter restoration trajectories. In degraded deciduous woodlands generally, it is unclear whether the soil seed bank will contribute native plant material in sufficient quantities to help achi...

A full list of affiliations appears at the end of the paper. R estoration ecology is rapidly advancing in response to the ever-expanding global decline in ecosystem integrity and its associated socioeconomic repercussions 1-4. Nowhere are these dynamics more evident than in drylands, which help sustain 39% of the world's human population 5 but rema...

Large‐scale ecological restoration efforts increasingly require large quantities of genetically diverse seeds adapted to a range of potential sites. To meet this demand, there is growing emphasis on mixing multiple, regionally‐sourced source populations in production settings to produce large quantities of genetically diverse seeds. However, becaus...

Mate limitation is a restoration issue in self-incompatible plant species and can easily go undetected in clonal species when seed set is not directly measured. Populations experiencing mate limitation have low-to-no seed production, and therefore are not demographically viable. The only way to overcome mate limitation in an existing population is...

Genetic diversity is a critical resource for species’ survival during times of environmental change. Conserving and sustainably managing genetic diversity requires understanding the distribution and amount of genetic diversity (in situ and ex situ) across multiple species. This paper focuses on three emblematic and IUCN Red List threatened oaks (Qu...

Premise of research. Ex situ plant conservation can be improved through genetic analysis. One area of interest is the relative value of conserving smaller or larger populations, and how sampling strategies for these might differ. Current practice emphasizes collecting large sample sizes from some populations and limited sampling from others, and ai...

Restoration practitioners have many seed material choices when restoring plant communities, and cultivars may be the most affordable and accessible material available for some species. However, the process of plant selection and commercial seed production can limit trait variability critical to survival and persistence in heterogeneous environments...

Roots are the first line for interactions between plants and the soil environment. Understanding root traits has important implications for species used in arid land restoration. Intraspecific root trait variation can have important competitive and performance ramifications that can impact the ability of a population to establish. So, we tested whe...

Maintaining a living plant collection is the most common method of ex situ conservation for plant species that cannot be seed banked (i.e., exceptional species). Viability of living collections, and their value for future conservation efforts, can be limited without coordinated efforts to track and manage individuals across institutions. Using a pe...

Effectively conserving biodiversity with limited resources requires scientifically informed and efficient strategies. Guidance is particularly needed on how many living plants are necessary to conserve a threshold level of genetic diversity in ex situ collections. We investigated this question for 11 taxa across five genera. In this first study ana...

The challenges of restoration in dryland ecosystems are growing due to a rise in anthropogenic disturbance and increasing aridity. Plant functional traits are often used to predict plant performance and can offer a window into potential outcomes of restoration efforts across environmental gradients. We analyzed a database including 15 yr of seeding...

Seeds are increasingly being stored in seed banks for ex situ conservation, food security, and restoration reserves. Although it is hypothesized that seeds of many species can survive the dry, freezer conditions (−20°C) of seed banks for many years, shelf life is unknown for many species. In particular, changes to dormancy and germination requireme...

Recent research has highlighted the existence of significant intraspecific trait variation within and among populations of plant species. This inherent variation within species means there is a wealth of trait diversity from which to source germplasm for use in ecological restoration. However, it remains unclear how to source materials from this po...

The genetic diversity of germplasm used in reintroduction and restoration efforts can influence how resulting populations establish, reproduce, and evolve over time, particularly in disturbed and changing conditions. Regional admixture provenancing, mixing seeds derived from multiple populations within the same region as the target site, has been s...

In degraded drylands, post-disturbance native plant community re-establishment is almost exclusively conducted using seeds. These restoration efforts are challenging, in large part as a result of a limited understanding of seed dormancy and germination traits. In this paper, we characterize these traits for four herbaceous perennials (Asteraceae) t...

Current guidance on sourcing native plants to support ecosystem function focuses on the high risk of failure when unsuitable material is used in ecological restoration. However, there is growing recognition that risks may be lower and rewards higher at highly disturbed sites isolated from remnant populations, especially when considering support for...

The Colorado Plateau is one of North America's five major deserts, encompassing 340,000 km² of the western U.S., and offering many opportunities for restoration relevant to researchers and land managers in drylands around the globe. The Colorado Plateau is comprised of vast tracts of public land managed by local, state, and federal agencies that ov...

Species responses to climate change will be primarily driven by their environmental tolerance range, or niche breadth, with the expectation that broad niches will increase resilience. Niche breadth is expected to be greater in more heterogeneous environments and moderated by life history. Niche breadth also varies across life stage. Therefore, the...

Traits are important for understanding how plant communities assemble and function, providing a common currency for studying ecological processes across species, locations, and habitat types. However, the majority of studies relating species traits to community assembly rely upon vegetative traits of mature plants. Seed traits, which are understudi...

Large quantities of diverse and appropriately-adapted native plant germplasm are required to facilitate restoration globally, yet shortages can prevent restorations from attaining desired species diversity and structure. An extensive native plant industry has developed in the United States to help meet these demands, yet very little is known about...

Seed dormancy can present a significant barrier to restoration outcomes in dryland systems. Physical and combinational (physical + physiological) dormancy are prevalent among seeds of many herbaceous perennials used in restoration of drylands throughout the western United States. Although many techniques designed to alleviate these dormancy traits...

For many species and seed sources used in restoration activities, specific seed germination requirements are often unknown. Because seed dormancy and germination traits can be constrained by phylogenetic history, related species are often assumed to have similar traits. However, significant variation in these traits is also present within species a...

There is a clear need to maximize the genetic diversity of plant material used in restorations to ensure restored populations are equipped to handle current and future conditions. This increasingly translates to focused efforts to intentionally increase the genetic diversity of seed sources in production and/or restoration settings. For example, mu...

In summary, there are strikingly similar genetic management needs for plants and animals in ex situ conservation collections. To date, ex situ conservation programs in the botanic garden community have concentrated largely on banking of seeds and pollen, while the zoo community has focused largely on living collections of animals. We have much to l...

Ex situ conservation in germplasm and living collections is a major focus of global plant conservation strategies. Prioritizing species for ex situ collection is a necessary component of this effort for which sound strategies are needed. Phylogenetic considerations can play an important role in prioritization. Collections that are more phylogenetic...

Table of all focal taxa, with values for PIECES’ component variables and ranks based on different approaches to prioritization. (CSV)

Phylogeny of 18,766 North American angiosperms used for phylogenetic analyses. (TRE)

Spreadsheet tool (Microsoft Excel) for implementing and modifying PIECES. (XLSM)

Test of the effects of incompletely resolved phylogenies on detection of phylogenetic signal using the D statistic. (TIF)

Large-scale restoration is occurring in many areas of the western United States and the use of genetically appropriate native plant seed is expected to increase the success of restoration efforts. Thus, determining intraspecific variation among populations and its driving forces are the first steps in successful seed sourcing. Here, we examine intr...

A fundamental aspect of establishing native plant species in restorations is ensuring that the seed used is viable. We test whether seed viability estimates for wild-collected seed of 4 forb species native to prairie habitat differ when using 3 methods: 1) germination, 2) tetrazolium, and 3) X-ray. Study species include Eryngium yuccifolium Michx....

Native plants that are able to persist and reproduce in highly disturbed habitats (i.e., “native winners”) may be useful to include in seed mixes when restoring similarly disturbed habitat. Establishing whether these plants produce viable seeds that germinate to a high degree under appropriate conditions is a first step to determining their utility...

Ecological restoration aims to assist the recovery of degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems. Restoration practitioners increasingly recognize the value of using ecologically appropri- ate and genetically diverse native plant material to support ecosystem recovery and long-term persistence in the face of unpredictable current and future conditi...

Editor: Félix Forest Premise of research. Conservation of plant species often requires ex situ (off-site) cultivation of living collections. Cycads constitute the most imperiled major group of plants, and ex situ collections are an important part of conservation planning for this group, given seed recalcitrance, difficulties with tissue culture, an...

Premise of research. Conservation of plant species often requires ex situ (off-site) cultivation of living collections. Cycads constitute the most imperiled major group of plants, and ex situ collections are an important part of conservation planning for this group, given seed recalcitrance, difficulties with tissue culture, and ongoing in situ thr...

Botanical capacity plays a fundamental role in solving the grand challenges of the next century, including climate change, sustainability, food security, preservation of ecosystem services, conservation of threatened species, and control of invasive species. Yet critical components of botanical education, research, and management are lacking across...

Proper sourcing of seed for ecological restoration has never been straightforward, and it is becoming even more challenging and complex as the climate changes. For decades, restoration practitioners have subscribed to the "local is best" tenet, even if the definition of "local" was often widely divergent between projects. However, given our increas...

For plant species important in ecological restoration, seed transfer zones have been developed to maximize the probability that sown seed will germinate, establish, persist, and reproduce without negatively impacting the genetic composition of remnant plant populations. However, empirically based seed transfer zones have not been developed for most...

Effective plant conservation includes addressing basic needs such as information about species distribution and rarity; research, management, education, and training capacity to mitigate threats facing threatened species; policy and funding to support continued capacity and conservation; and, ultimately, a public that understands and supports the i...

How much progress has North America made toward the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) Target 8 of at least 75% of threatened plant species in accessible ex situ collections by 2020? To answer this, the North American Collections Assessment was carried out in 2010. More than 200 botanical and conservation institutions in the United State...

Despite the fundamental role plant science plays in addressing global environmental issues, a recent survey of nearly 1600 members of the botanical community in the United States revealed a severe shortage in the nation's botanical capacity or resource capabilities that support the advancement of plant science. The survey and a subsequent published...

Worldwide about one third of all plant species is estimated to be threatened with extinction. Plants are generally under-represented in conservation. However, the global strategy for plant conservation (GSPC) sets forth 16 targets to halt the current and continuing loss of plant diversity within a framework for actions at global, regional, national...

The aim of any reintroduction is to provide sufficient genetic variability to buffer against changing selection pressures and ensure long-term survival. To date, few empirical studies have compared levels of genetic diversity in reintroduced and native plant populations. Using microsatellite markers, we measured the genetic diversity within reintro...

It has been suggested that Botanic Gardens had in the past, and continue to have today, an important role in plant invasions across the globe. Although mistakes were made in the past, it is contended that such historical actions need to be viewed in the context of the time, and the situation is different today. Although most plant introductions hav...

The US Botanical Capacity Assessment Project (BCAP) was initiated as a first step to gauge the nation's collective ability to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century. The project, in which the authors of this article are involved, specifically aimed to identify multisector contributions to and gaps in botanical capacity in order to de...

Despite rapid growth in the field of landscape genetics, our understanding of how landscape features interact with life history traits to influence population genetic structure in plant species remains limited. Here, we identify population genetic divergence in three species of Penstemon (Plantaginaceae) similarly distributed throughout the Great B...

Rapid climate change has the potential to alter the location of bioclimatic envelopes for a significant portion of the world’s flora. Plant species will respond variously via phenotypic plasticity, evolutionary adaptation, migration, or extinction. When fragmentation limits migration potential of many species or when natural migration rates are out...

Many plants reproduce both clonally and sexually, and the balance between the two modes of reproduction will vary among populations. Clonal reproduction was characterized in three populations of the wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana, to determine the extent that reproductive mode varied locally between sites. The study sites were fragmented wood...

Plant conservation genetics provides tools to guide conservation and restoration efforts, measure and monitor success, and ultimately minimize extinction risk by conserving species as dynamic entities capable of evolving in the face of changing conditions. We consider the application of these tools to rare and common species alike, as ongoing threa...

Theory predicts widespread loss of genetic diversity from drift and inbreeding in trees subjected to habitat fragmentation, yet empirical support of this theory is scarce. We argue that population genetics theory may be misapplied in light of ecological realities that, when recognized, require scrutiny of underlying evolutionary assumptions. One ec...

Eight novel microsatellite primer pairs are presented for Penstemon rostriflorus, representing the first microsatellite markers available for this genus. Loci were characterized for 20 individuals from two populations in the Great Basin, USA. All loci are polymorphic within P. rostriflorus (seven to 13 alleles per locus; observed heterozygosity bet...