Matthew A Albrecht

• Ph.D.
• Director of CCSD at Missouri Botanical Garden

Conservation translocations are an established method for reducing the extinction risk of plant species through intentional movement within or outside the indigenous range. Unsuitable environmental conditions at translocation recipient sites and a lack of understanding of species–environment relationships are often identified as critical barriers t...

Premise Reintroductions or translocations are an increasingly important activity to recover and conserve at‐risk plant species. Yet because many are not published in the scientific literature, learning from previous attempts may often require considerable time and effort. The Center for Plant Conservation Reintroduction Database (CPCRD; https://sav...

In degraded ecosystems, soil microbial communities (SMCs) may influence the outcomes of ecological restoration. Restoration practices can affect SMCs, though it is unclear how variation in the onset of restoration activities in woodlands affects SMCs, how those SMCs influence the performance of hard‐to‐establish woodland forbs, and how different wo...

The fundamental goal of a rare plant translocation is to create self‐sustaining populations with the evolutionary resilience to persist in the long‐term. Yet most plant translocation syntheses focus on a few factors influencing short‐term benchmarks of success (e.g., survival and reproduction). Short‐term benchmarks can be misleading when trying to...

Native seed vendors are a primary source of germplasm for restoration projects; however, most plant species are not commercially available. Preferences in the types of species that vendors grow and sell may limit the similarity between reference communities and reconstructed ones established from seed mixes. We tested whether a restoration species...

Aims Determining the factors underlying rarity is essential for developing successful reintroduction programs with rare plant species. However, the influence of soil microbes on rare plant performance remains underexplored. In this study, we examined how changes in soil microbial communities affected performance of Astragalus bibullatus, a federall...

Botanical gardens are addressing urgent biodiversity issues through plant-based capacities including botanical research and data-sharing, conservation horticulture, ecological restoration, seed banking, and more. The Missouri Botanical Garden initiative BiodiverseCity St. Louis, led by the Garden’s sustainability division, adds broad community enga...

Many countries have legislation intended to limit or ofset the impact of anthropogenic disturbance and development on threatened plants. Translocations are often integral to those mitigation policies. When translocation is used exclusively to mitigate development impacts, it is often termed a ‘mitigation translocation.’ However, both the terminolog...

In degraded ecosystems, soil microbial communities (SMCs) may influence the outcomes of ecological restoration. Restoration practices can affect SMCs, though it is unclear how variation in the onset of restoration activities in woodlands affects SMCs, how those SMCs influence the performance of hard-to-establish woodland forbs, and how different wo...

Many countries have legislation intended to limit or offset the impact of anthropogenic disturbance and development on threatened plants. Translocations are often integral to those mitigation policies. When translocation is used exclusively to mitigate development impacts, it is often termed a ‘mitigation translocation.’ However, both the terminolo...

Seed limitation represents a fundamental constraint to the restoration of native plant communities, and practitioners often apply seed additions to overcome this barrier. However, surprisingly few studies have experimentally tested whether seed additions can increase diversity in herbaceous communities of oak woodlands, which have undergone large‐s...

Conservation translocation - the movement of species for conservation benefit - includes reintroducing species into the wild, reinforcing dwindling populations, helping species shift ranges in the face of environmental change, and moving species to enhance ecosystem function. Conservation translocation can lead to clear conservation benefits and ca...

Conservation translocation - the movement of species for conservation benefit - includes reintroducing species into the wild, reinforcing dwindling populations, helping species shift ranges in the face of environmental change, and moving species to enhance ecosystem function. Conservation translocation can lead to clear conservation benefits and ca...

Resurrecting extinct species is a fascinating and challenging idea for scientists and the general public. Whereas some theoretical progress has been made for animals, the resurrection of extinct plants (de-extinction sensu lato) is a relatively recently discussed topic. In this context, the term ‘de-extinction’ is used sensu lato to refer to the re...

Premise of the study: Annual and perennial life history transitions are abundant among angiosperms, and understanding the phenotypic variation underlying life span shifts is a key endeavor of plant evolutionary biology. Comparative analyses of trait variation and correlation networks among annual and perennial plants is increasingly important as n...

Thinning and removal of woody vegetation is the first step in restoring ecosystem structure to systems altered by woody encroachment. However, pile burning – a common method of eliminating woody residue at restoration sites – can promote the establishment of exotic species and adversely impact soils and native vegetation via extreme soil heating. D...

Despite its successes, the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has proven challenging to implement due to funding limitations, workload backlog, and other problems. As threats to species survival intensify and as more species come under threat, the need for the ESA and similar conservation laws and policies in other countries to function efficiently...

The unglaciated southeastern United States is a biodiversity hotspot, with a disproportionate amount of this biodiversity concentrated in grasslands. Like most hotspots, the Southeast is also threatened by human activities, with the total reduction of southeastern grasslands estimated as 90 percent (upwards to 100 percent for some types) and with m...

Rare species with limited geographic distributions and small census populations are particularly susceptible to genetic drift and inbreeding. Assessing genetic variation within and among populations of imperiled species is key to the development of effective conservation management strategies. Reintroduction programs may prove more successful in th...

Understanding genetic diversity and structure in a rare species is critical for prioritizing both in situ and ex situ conservation efforts. One such rare species is Physaria filiformis (Brassicaceae), a threatened, winter annual plant species. The species has a naturally fragmented distribution, occupying three different soil types spread across fo...

Successful recovery of populations of endangered plant species requires conservation of existing populations as well as the creation of new populations through reintroduction. However, the ecological requirements of many rare plant species are poorly understood, and many reintroduced populations are unable to survive long‐term. Effective reintroduc...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Annual and perennial life history transitions are abundant among angiosperms, and understanding the phenotypic variation underlying life span shifts is a key endeavor of plant evolutionary biology. Comparative analyses of trait variation and correlation networks among annual and perennial plants is increasingly important as ne...

Increasing genetic diversity and maintaining evolutionary processes are primary goals of conservation translocations, which involve the intentional movement of an at‐risk species to establish new populations or augment existing populations, with the ultimate goal of reversing declines. Much debate has focused on how to select source material for pl...

Understanding how temperature and other environmental cues influence germination traits can aid in the conservation and management of rare plant species. We examined the germination niche of the narrow endemic Solidago albopilosa, a perennial herb restricted to sandstone rockhouses in the southeastern United States. We experimentally subjected seed...

Conservation genetics studies not only provide information about genetic diversity and genetic structure to inform conservation strategies, they can also help infer life history characteristics such as mating system, pollinator, and seed dispersal strategy of a plant species. Here, we investigated Geocarpon (Mononeuria minima; Caryophyllaceae), an...

Marshallia mohrii (Asteraceae) is a perennial forb endemic to grasslands in the southeastern United States. Despite having been listed as federally threatened for three decades, little is known about its biology and life history. In this study, we examined the role of light, temperature, seed age, and cold stratification on seed dormancy break and...

Marshallia mohrii (Asteraceae) is a perennial forb endemic to grasslands in the southeastern United States. Despite having been listed as federally threatened for three decades, little is known about its biology and life history. In this study, we examined the role of light, temperature, seed age, and cold stratification on seed dormancy break and...

Reintroductions are important components of conservation and recovery programs for rare plant species, but their long‐term success rates are poorly understood. Previous reviews of plant reintroductions focused on short‐term (e.g., ≤3 years) survival and flowering of founder individuals rather than on benchmarks of intergenerational persistence, suc...

Reintroductions of rare plants require detailed knowledge of habitat requirements, species interactions, and restoration techniques. Thus, incremental experimentation over many years may be required to develop adequate knowledge and techniques for successful reintroduction. To determine drivers of extinction in historical reintroductions of a feder...

Recent estimates indicate that one-fifth of botanical species worldwide are considered at risk of becoming extinct in the wild. One available strategy for conserving many rare plant species is reintroduction, which holds much promise especially when carefully planned by following guidelines and when monitored long-term. We review the Center for Pla...

Many rare plant and animal species require frequent habitat disturbance to ensure population persistence, but humans often suppress or modify natural disturbance regimes, such as floods and fires, which harms disturbance-adapted species. To manage these populations, demographic models are often used to quantify the optimal disturbance frequency of...

Few strategies for conservation seed banking consider current and climate threats simultaneously and few—if any—represent uncertainty inherent in the assessment process. Here we evaluate the vulnerability of 5148 populations of 71 rare plant species in the North American Central Highlands to current threat, threat from climate change, and their com...

Inferring habitat requirements of rare plants can be challenging when the few remaining populations occur in sites with divergent successional states. In island-like rock outcrop systems within forest landscapes, edaphic conditions are assumed to modulate successional patterns, but changes to disturbance regimes in the landscape matrix could alter...

Temperate wetland species often require light and warm temperatures for seed germination. However, recent studies indicate that species which specialize on permanently saturated wetlands that are maintained by groundwater discharge (fens, seeps and mountain springs), rather than wetlands with surface-water-driven hydrologic regimes, diverge from th...

Species extinction is tantamount to loss of chemical diversity, and so it is important to seize all opportunities to study species on the brink of extinction. Such studies are often hampered by the limited material available, but that obstacle is surmountable through collaboration with botanical gardens and advances in instrumentation. The goldenro...

Species extinction is tantamount to loss of chemical diversity, and so it is important to seize all opportunities to study species on the brink of extinction. Such studies are often hampered by the limited material available, but that obstacle is surmountable through collaboration with botanical gardens and advances in instrumentation. The goldenro...

Theory predicts that edaphic endemics should exhibit high levels of population differentiation due to restricted gene flow among patchily distributed habitats. Here, we tested this prediction with the federally threatened annual Geocarpon minimum, an edaphic endemic restricted to sandstone outcrops and slick spots associated with saline prairies in...

The forests in the Central Hardwoods Region will be affected directly and indirectly by a changing climate over the next 100 years. This assessment evaluates the vulnerability of terrestrial ecosystems in the Central Hardwoods Region of Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri to a range of future climates. We synthesized and summarized information on the c...

Background/Question/Methods For the 33,000 plant species estimated to be at risk of extinction worldwide, reintroduction is often suggested as a conservation strategy. The design and creation of reintroduced populations that are resilient to environmental change requires understanding the factors that influence population establishment. Using a s...

Background/Question/Methods Assisted migration (AM), the purposeful introduction of lagging species to areas that are newly favorable as a result of climate change, is controversial because it a) has the potential to cause invasions by diseases and pests or by the introduced species itself; b) is currently practiced on an ad hoc basis; c) ignores...

Background/Question/Methods Reintroduction has emerged as an important conservation tool for the recovery of endangered plant species. Yet, many reintroductions are unsuccessful due to a poor understanding of how biotic and abiotic gradients interact to influence the target species population dynamics. One example of an endangered species that ha...

The success of rare plant conservation programs depends upon understanding the ecological factors that regulate seed dormancy and germination. In this study, we characterize the germination niche with respect to temperature and light of three imperiled perennials that are endemic to rock outcrops in the southeastern United States: Astragalus bibull...

The reintroduction of rare and endangered species is now widely practiced as a conservation tool to reestablish species within their historic range (Guerrant and Kaye 2007; Seddon et al. 2007; Menges 2008). The fundamental goal of a plant reintroduction is to create a self-sustaining population with evolutionary potential that can resist ecological...

Reintroduction work must continue and should be expanded because it is an important tool to stabilize and restore vulnerable declining species. Reintroduction can play a vital role in keeping species present in our landscape through climate change, but this will be possible only through careful planning, research, modeling, and priority setting. In...

Mesic deciduous forest herbs often disperse seed with morphophysiological dormancy (MPD) that prevents germination during unfavorable periods for seedling survival. However, for seeds of some species with MPD, seasonal separation of root and shoot emergence and variation in dormancy levels can complicate interpretation of seedling emergence timing...

Background/Question/Methods The reintroduction of rare and endangered plant species to unoccupied habitat is now widely practiced to conserve biodiversity. Yet very little is known about the ecological determinants of successful and failed plant reintroductions. We compiled a global dataset, consisting of 60 plant taxa and over 150 reintroduction e...

1. In deciduous forests, herb distribution patterns can shift dramatically across topographical gradients, yet it remains unclear whether topographical associations reflect regeneration niche differences that arise during early life-history stages. 2. We examined: (i) whether seedling recruitment patterns were consistent with topographical distribu...

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) is a rare to uncommon CITES Appendix II-listed perennial plant species that is harvested from the wild to supply the herbal trade. Harvest seasons for American ginseng are intended to coincide with berry ripening in the species. However, geographic patterns of harvest seasons among states suggest they may n...

Goldenseal is an uncommon woodland herb whose rhizomes are widely harvested for their medicinal properties. Goldenseal populations regenerate from vegetative propagules that are broken-off from the primary rhizome during harvesting activities. While previous studies reported significant variability in re-growth among harvested populations, it is no...

The creation of new populations in conservation reserves plays an increasingly important role in reducing the extinction risk of endangered plants. We experimentally introduced seedlings of the federally endangered forb Astragalus bibullatus into protected limestone cedar glades in central Tennessee and tested how source population, transplant seas...

Medicinal herbs indigenous to eastern deciduous forests are increasingly cultivated in forest gardens for economic and cultural purposes, yet little information is available on how post-harvest seed storage effects survivorship and germination. In this study, seeds of the medicinal woodland herbs, black cohosh (Actaea racemosa L.) and goldenseal (H...

Second-growth oak forests in the central hardwoods region are considered compositionally unstable in the absence of large-scale disturbances. While prescribed burning and mechanical thinning treatments are potential options for managing succession in mixed-oak forests, few studies have adequately studied tree successional patterns in mature (>100-y...

We used a double germination phenology or “move-along” experiment (sensu Baskin and Baskin, 2003) to characterize seed dormancy in two medicinal woodland herbs, Collinsonia canadensis L. (Lamiaceae) and Dioscorea villosa L. (Dioscoreaceae). Imbibed seeds of both species were moved through the following two sequences of simulated thermoperiods: (a)...

Native Plants Journal 6.2 (2005) 134-135 With the ever-burgeoning global demand for plant-based medicinal products, Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs: Cultivation, Conservation, and Ecology makes an important contribution to the conservation of medicinal plants. This book thoroughly details 20 native North American medicinal plants considered "at-ris...