Population persistence of a displaced shrub

Olearia flocktoniae (Asteraceae) is an endangered shrub that was passively translocated from its natural ecosystem where it has since gone extinct. Gross and Mackay use two decades of demographic monitoring and a seed bank study in a sensitivity analysis in order to reveal vulnerabilities in the life cycle. They find that seed production is high but populations are short-term persistent (<5 years) due to transient seed banks and poor survivorship of seedlings. Seedling establishment is promoted by soil disturbance and only populations that have been disturbed annually survived the full 20 years of the study. They conclude that active management is thus required to keep this species from extinction.