Pitcher’s Thistle: a Great Lakes Endemic as a Model System

Session: 09. - Modeling, Detecting, and Managing Rarity

Claudia Jolls, East Carolina University, [email protected]

Abstract

We and collaborators have more than two decades of demographic monitoring for the federally threatened dune perennial Cirsium pitcheri (Pitcher’s thistle) throughout the species’ range. These long-term data have allowed us to observe and document changes in populations, habitat, and new threats, largely anthropogenic. We have used traditional population viability analysis to model effects of natural succession and invasive species, including non-native plants and non-target impacts from a biocontrol seed predator. Building on newer technology such as videography for other rare taxa of these habitats, including Piping Plover, recent efforts have involved unmanned aerial vehicles and multispectral data to help detect thistle plants and evaluate habitat variables. We also have used other remote sensing data such as LIDAR for rare plants of the mid-Atlantic shorelines and see considerable promise for applications in the Great Lakes. Our work also suggests Pitcher’s thistle may offer important resources to the pollinator community perhaps even as a keystone in the dune network. Novel technologies hold promise for Pitcher’s thistle conservation which also may serve as an umbrella species for other taxa of concern.

1. Keyword
conservation

2. Keyword
remote sensing

4. Additional Keyword
rare plants

5. Additional Keyword
demography

6. Additional Keyword
dunes and shorelines