Endemic plant conservation is important for maintaining regional diversity and in reducing homogenization. Research on rare endemics often focuses on genetic variability and pollen limitation. Less well studied is how other life history traits impact reproduction. We examined the effects of plant size on demographics of a threatened species, smooth coneflower (Echinacea laevigata), which is a narrow endemic in forest glade habitats in the southeastern USA. We tagged and recorded the size and reproductive status of plants in five plots (e.g., subpopulations) in Montgomery County, Virginia, USA, from 2014 to 2017. We used integral projection modeling to assess key aspects of the life cycle, estimate how changes in size and reproductive status impacted population growth, survival, and future reproduction. We found that very few plants reproduced each year (range: 1.2–18.2%). Plant size was a strong predictor of survival, reproduction, and growth probabilities the next year. We identified a population level cost of reproduction that reduced lambda by 2%. Reproductive plants experienced additional costs including a 5.7% decline in survival, 16% decline in growth, and a 10% lower chance of flowering in the next year compared to plants that were not reproductive. Overall, lambdas were above 1 indicating the population was growing in all years. This work demonstrated plant size had strong impacts on reproductive dynamics and reproduction can incur a cost on future population dynamics. Therefore, management of this species should focus on preserving environmental conditions that promote plant growth such as preventing woody encroachment.

A plant community's response to disturbance is often unpredictable, particularly when compounding environmental changes are involved. Similarly, an altered disturbance regime can be a significant driver of plant community shifts, including rare plant loss. In February 2020, we resampled plots on Northwest Cape (Everglades National Park, USA) originally established in 2007 to assess the status of a disturbance-dependent, federally listed species, Garber's spurge (Euphorbia garberi), as well as compositional shifts in its coastal grassland habitat. The survey occurred 2.5 y after Hurricane Irma (2017) and almost 20 y after the last known fire event (2004). We encountered a significant (86.5%) decrease in E. garberi individuals since 2007, corresponding with an overall increase in cover of all plant functional groups examined, notably trees and shrubs. A nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination and SIMPER analysis determined a shift in species composition since the last survey, especially with the grasses Dactyloctenium aegyptium (a nonnative; dominant in 2007) and Schizachyrium sanguineum (a native; dominant in 2020) and woody plants. Notable among the latter are the native hardwood tree Piscidia piscipula and the invasive shrub Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia), both of which threaten to accelerate successional trajectories and alter responses to future disturbances. We posit that in the absence of management intervention, the habitat will continue to deviate from grassland conditions that support E. garberi. Future activities to conserve this threatened species and its habitat should include frequent monitoring, increased prescribed fires, seed banking, and invasive species management.

Expanding human pressure has reduced natural habitats globally and motivated strategies to conserve remaining natural habitats. Decisions about conservation on private lands, however, are typically made by local stakeholders who are motivated by the elements of nature they most highly value. Thus, national prioritization for conservation should be complemented by local analysis of species or habitats that most influence local landowner decisions. We demonstrate within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem how quantitative mapping of wildlife species that are highly valued by local residents can be integrated with indices of ecosystem integrity to prioritize private lands for conservation. We found that natural vegetation cover (NVC) comprised 81% of the private lands. Some watersheds have lost 6% of NVC since 2001 and developed lands now cover >40% of their areas. Locations high in ecological value, elk habitat, and grizzly habitat occurred in different biophysical settings. Consequently, only 2% of the NVC supports high levels of all three biodiversity measures and 26% of this area was within conservation easements. The remaining areas of high biodiversity value that are unprotected are priorities for conservation. We suggest that national-scale conservation planning will be most effective on private lands if additional within-ecoregion analyses are done on the elements of biodiversity that are most valued by local people.

Using prescribed fire to control invasive grass species in historically fire-maintained grasslands is a complex endeavor. If both the invasive and native grass species are fire-adapted, there is concern that a prescribed fire that reduces the invasive grass species will also damage the native grass species. In the historically fire-maintained grasslands of the southern Great Plains, controlling the invasive grass Bothriochloa ischaemum is a major challenge. Some previous studies in the region have found that prescribed fires in the summer or early autumn have been successful in the short term in reducing B. ischaemum without also reducing native grasses. We established an experiment in 2009 in central Texas evaluating the effects of a single summer burn and of clipping in plots with different initial vegetation (dominated by B. ischaemum or by native species) on B. ischaemum cover and on native species richness and cover. We applied the burning and clipping treatments in 2009 and surveyed plant communities in 2011 (2 y post-fire) and in 2021 (12 y post-fire) to determine whether the summer prescribed burn effectively reduced B. ischaemum 2 y later, whether those reductions persisted after 12 y, whether clipping was equivalent to burning in its effects on B. ischaemumdominated communities, and whether the treatments had beneficial impacts on the native plant species in the community. B. ischaemum cover was significantly reduced in the burned plots in 2011 and richness and cover of native species had increased. By 2021, only native grass cover was significantly higher in the burned plots than in the unburned plots. Clipping did not have effects equal to burning after 12 y in the B. ischaemum-dominated plots. Species richness increases were similar between burned and clipped invasive-dominated plots in 2011, but these similarities had disappeared by 2021. This study suggests that repeated fires are necessary to maintain reductions in B. ischaemum cover but that benefits to native grass cover can persist even if the invasive grass cover reductions are not maintained.

Roads are a widespread feature of anthropogenic landscapes, and roadsides serve as disturbed habitats suitable for ruderal plant species colonization. While roadside plant species are often exotic to a region, in some ecosystems such as the Florida scrub, roadsides are also home to numerous endemic, often imperiled species, that capitalize on open, disturbed habitat. Importantly, the co-occurrence of endemics and exotics along roadsides could threaten the populations of the endemics, yet it is unclear how frequently the two groups co-occur. Here, we conducted vegetation surveys across seven habitat types in the Florida scrub ecosystem to (1) examine the distribution and co-occurrence of scrub endemic and exotic species along sandy roadsides, and (2) determine the factors that best predict the occurrence of endemic and exotic species. We found that sandy roadsides were more frequently colonized by endemic rather than exotic plant species and that endemic and exotic species rarely co-occurred. Endemic species occurrence was best predicted by adjacent habitat type, while exotic species occurrence was best predicted by proximity to likely propagule sources. Overall, our study showed that scrub endemic and exotic species largely establish in distinct roadside areas. Our work informs our understanding of the role of roadside in species conservation as well as the potential role of biotic resistance against exotic species.

Over the last 150–200 y, urbanization and agricultural development have contributed to the loss of >99% of coastal prairie that once spanned >1 million ha of land in Louisiana. Given the extent of loss, fragmented nature of extant coastal prairie, and current threats (e.g., incompatible grazing practices, fire suppression, human disturbance, invasive species), identifying locations of unknown coastal prairie is necessary to preserve this critically imperiled ecosystem. We used remotely sensed data to identify potential locations of coastal prairie in southwestern Louisiana, USA. Given similarities between coastal prairie and other land cover types (e.g., pasture) in the region, the small number of locations available for use as training data, and the likelihood that any previously undiscovered remnants are quite small, we created two separate unsupervised classification models for our study area—one based on a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index that we calculated from 2019 NAIP imagery and one based on an Enhanced Vegetation Index that we calculated from 2019 Sentinel-2 imagery. We examined both models separately and overlapped models to look at areas of agreement, or congruence, in the potential locations of coastal prairie. The total area of model congruence was 3733 ha within our ∼330,000 ha study area, with 53% of model congruence within Calcasieu Parish and 38% in Cameron Parish. In addition, we primarily found concentrations of model congruence in north-central Cameron Parish. The methods we outline here could help inform locations of future surveys for coastal prairie, which is critical for protection and restoration of this unique ecosystem.