Assessing British Virgin Islands habitat recovery using soil seedbanks
Quantifying native and non-native plant species in the soil seedbank on the Caribbean Islands of Great and Little Tobago, to provide a baseline to monitor and inform habitat recovery following non-native species control.
Department
Kew team
Rosemary Newton (Project Leader)
Marcella Corcoran
Juan Viruel
Freya Cornell-Davison
Thomas Heller
Sara Barrios
Stuart Cable
NPTVI team
Nancy Woodfield-Pascoe
Cassander Titley O’Neal
Great and Little Tobago National Parks of the British Virgin Islands are internationally recognised Key Biodiversity Areas. Darwin Plus Funded Project DPLUS196 is removing major threats to their native flora: feral goats and emergent invasive plant species. The soil seedbank is an important source of plants during ecosystem recovery.
This project will, using molecular methods, provide a baseline of native and non-native plants present in the soil seedbank, thereby enabling enhanced habitat recovery through continued management of non-native plant species and planning of native plant species reintroduction.
- Non-native plant species DNA sequence data for BVI generated and accessioned in secure collections
- Database and reference document for all emergent native and non-native plant seedlings created to enable seedling identification
- The risk of non-native plant species persisting and the potential for native plant species recovering from the soil seedbank quantified
- Capacity built for soil seedbank monitoring to enable effective non-native plant species management; outreach activities undertaken to raise the awareness of invasive plant species
Photos from the project
