Seana Walsh

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Conservation Scientist and Curator of Living Collections at National Tropical Botanical Garden

Ecosystems that occur on cliffs and rocky outcrops are home to many plants that are specially adapted to harsh environmental conditions. These habitats are seeing increased pressure from development, recreational use, and invasive species, calling for a thorough evaluation of the endangerment of the taxa inhabiting them. However, the conservation s...

Promoting a global network of pollen banks

Background and aims: Island communities, with their long coastlines and increased vulnerability to sea level rise, offer compelling opportunities to investigate salinity tolerance of coastal plants. Seeds are generally more vulnerable than other plant stages to increased stressors. The aim of this study is to characterize salinity tolerance during...

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...

Societal Impact Statement Trees are an important part of many ecosystems. The Global Tree Assessment data can be used to focus conservation and restoration efforts for the circa 30% of tree species that are threatened worldwide. The conservation status for the tree flora of Limahuli Valley on Kaua'i Island and a restoration plan for 11 endangered t...

The human transport and subsequent naturalization of species outside their natural ranges has led to novel interactions between introduced and native species throughout the world. Understanding how introduced species impact pollination networks is useful for both invasive species management and native species conservation and restoration. Banana po...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) is the world's most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of species. Governmental agencies and conservation organizations increasingly rely on IUCN Red List assessments to develop conservation policies and priorities. Fu...

We report the rediscovery of two Kaua‘i single-island endemic flowering plant taxa previously thought to be extinct, Euphorbia remyi var. hanaleiensis (Euphorbiaceae) and Melicope nealae (Rutaceae); and two new Kaua‘i island records for endemic pteridophyte taxa, Hymenophyllum obtusum (Hymenophyllaceae) and Athyrium haleakalae (Athyri - aceae). The...

Climate can play a critical role in seed development and germination. Linking seed germination information with environmental variables and provenance may be important in understanding plant community structure and response to climate change, which can help guide conservation planning. Native Hawaiian Metrosideros (Myrtaceae; ʻŌhiʻa) is a hyperdive...

The reliance of each fig species on its specific pollinator wasp, and vice versa, is the archetype of both obligatory mutualism and coevolution. Pollinator sharing between host fig species is only known to occur among closely related sympatric species. On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, we gathered syconia from 23 non-native fig species, three of whi...

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...

Understanding the reproductive biology of rare plant species is fundamental to managing their restoration. Brighamia insignis is a critically endangered Hawaiian lobeliad endemic to the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau. The flowers appear to be adapted for moth pollination although its putative pollinator is believed to be extinct or very rare. To con...

Many Malvaceae species have been reported to exhibit physical dormancy (PY) and it has been assumed that Hawaiian Hibiscus taxa exhibit PY, with reports suggesting different pre-treatment methods to propagate seeds. Until now, there have been no peer-reviewed laboratory studies on seed dormancy break and germination of any endemic Hawaiian Hibiscus...

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...

The Polynesian algal bibliographic checklist is based on records from past references for American Samoa and Samoa (380 spp.), Cook Islands (111 spp.), Johnston Atoll (190 spp.), Line Islands (250 spp.), Niue (3 spp.), Phoenix Islands (193 spp.), Pitcairn Islands (23 spp.), Tokelau (1 sp.), Tonga (109 spp.), Wake Atoll (121 spp.) and Wallis and Fut...