The Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan
Ex-Situ Conservation of Native Plants: Climate change
mitigation
Prepared by:
Oraib S. Nawash
PhD, Plant Ecology and Vegetation ScienceUniversity of Hohenheim
Stuttgart, Germany
• In this presentation:
• Bio-regions in Jordan
• - What is a native plant?
• Methods of preserving native plant.
• Re-creation of five plant habitats in Jordan at Tell Ar-Rumman site
• Water harvesting
•What is a native plant?
"A native plant species isone that occurs naturallyin a particularregion, country, ecosystem, and habitatwithout direct or indirecthuman actions."
•Bio-geographical regions of
Jordan
• The Mediterranean Region
• Irano-Turanian Region
• Saharo-Arabian
• Sudanian
• The Mediterranean region
• Restricted to the highlands of Jordanextending from Irbid in the north to Ras En-Naqab in the south
• Altitude ranges from 700-1750 m above sealevel.
• Rainfall ranges from 300-600 mm.
• Comprises the most fertile part of Jordanand presents the best climate for the forestecosystem.
• Irano-Turanian Region• Narrow strip of variable width which
surrounds the entire Mediterranean region except in the north
• Mainly small shrubs and bushes
• Altitudes usually range from 500-700 m,
• Rainfall ranges from 150 to 300 mm.
•The Saharo-Arabian region• Almost 80% of the of total area.
• Altitude ranges from 50 to 200 mm.
• Vegetation is dominated by smallshrubs and small annuals located inwadi beds.
•The Sudanian region
• - This region started at al-Karamah in thenorth and continues to the south throughthe Dead Sea depression and Wadi Araba,which end at the tip of Gulf of Aqaba.
• - Altitude is the main feature, consideredthe lowest point on earth (-400m below sealevel). In some points it reaches 120 mabove sea level
• - Annual rainfall ranges from 50 to 100 mm.
• - Is characterized by the presence of tropicaltree elements
•Why we need to conserve native plants?
Conservation of native plants
In-situ and Ex-Situ conservation
i
In-Situ Conservation
• The conservation of species in their natural habitats
Ex-Situ Conservation
• Involves conservation outside the native habitat
• E.g. seed storage and botanical gardens.
Ex-Situ conservation of native plants at the RBG of Jordan-Recreation of five habitats
Habitat based conservation
Taking into consideration
• Bio-geographic conditions
• The complete watershed area
• Soil condition
• Exposure to the elements
Yarmouk Highlands deciduous oak
Dibben Pine Forest Habitat
Dana habitat
Jordan Valley Habitat
Fresh Water Habitat
• Ensuring the propagation of threatened species
• Stocking the garden for landscaping purposes
• Providing the public with native species nursery
Water Harvesting
climate change
• Is a change in the statistical properties of theclimate system when considered over longperiods of time, regardless of cause.
What is BIODIVERSITY!???
What is it’s value!!!!
What are Climate Change effects on plant biodiversity
According to Earth watch Institute (Europe) Climate change has already produced significant and
measurable impacts on almost all ecosystems, taxa
and ecological processes, including changes in
species distribution, timing of biological behaviours,
, ecological interactions and community dynamics.
FACT
Species have evolved over millions of years to adapt
to specific climatic conditions as well as to variations
in climate, but the current increase in temperature
and differing weather patterns has occurred over an
extremely short period of time which evolutionary
processes are not able to match. Therefore, many
species of plants and animals are not able to adapt
to changing temperature and weather.
Global climate change creates conditions that may be suitable for some invasive species to become
established in new areas.
Shifting seasons and phenology
•Changes in seasons are already being noticed in
many temperate regions
Plants and pollinatorrelationships
What do you expect to happen??
Example: Colorado Rocky Mountains, United States,
Research on pollination ecology in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, United States, found that flowering time for plants is determined by the snow melt, which is likely to change in response to climate change.
“The difference in timing between seasonal events atlow and high altitudes has negatively influencedmigratory pollinators such as hummingbirds, whichhibernate at lower altitudes and latitudes.
If climate change disturbs the timing of flowering andthe behavior of pollinators such as butterflies andbumblebees, then the intimate relationshipsbetween plants and pollinators that have co-evolvedover thousands of years will be irrevocably altered”.
Changing patterns ofprecipitation and evaporation
• It is widely expected that rainfall variability
and dry season severity will increase.
Protect our Natural Resources and Conserve our Biodiversity
Thank You