Translocation and monitoring of wetland plants

Wet habitats are among the most threatened ecosystems all over the World and the importance of wetland protection is well recognized in several international treaties. Threats for wetlands are numerous; drainage in agriculture, use of water for the industry and agriculture, climate change-mediated drought or intrusion of salt water into freshwater wetlands, water pollution and eutrophication. Consequently, wetland destruction, fragmentation and degradation have led to negative direct and indirect impacts on wetland-dependent plants. Habitat protection, restoration or reconstructions are widely used ways to recover aquatic ecosystems. Habitat restoration and reconstruction require wetland plants to be translocated into restored sites or new sites. However, translocation of wetland plants can be very challenging because it also includes the water quality management. In many times, this is the most difficult part in translocation programs. Water quality can be assessed through the analysis of several physical and chemical variables and long time series of sampling is needed to obtain reliable data on water quality. In fact, while soil accumulates pollutants and nutrients, the concentration of pollutants in running water may reach high values during acute and shortlasting episodes, which makes them difficult to be detected. In some cases, also toxicological analysis may be needed to understand the thresholds of specific factors affecting the survival of the target species. In general, translocations require sound knowledge on species and habitats, like population dynamics, mating system and ability of dispersal. The selection and restoration of the target sites are one of the most important phases in a translocation program. Although different techniques are available to avoid mistakes in choosing the target sites, it must be considered that their selection should be quick and cheap. Here we present different approaches for the selection of suitable translocation sites for wetland-dependent plants species. Although several guidelines to translocation have been recently developed, few specific best practices for wetland-dependent plants are available. Thus, here we provide some practical advices and examples useful to improve the translocation success of wetland plants, from the preliminary phases of translocation to the monitoring program.