Re-establishment trials in endangered plants: A review and the example of Arenaria grandiflora, a species on the brink of extinction in the Parisian region (France)

Abstract

The successful restoration of plant species in the wild depends on knowledge of the species' habitat requirements and genetic, demographic, and ecological traits that may increase vulnerability to stochastic extinction processes. A few studies have reported experimental projects that attempted to re-establish populations of endangered plants; however, their experimental designs often led to ambiguous results. This paper reviews the common practices in plant restoration and re-establishment programs and reports on an experiment that we performed on an endangered plant Arenaria grandiflora) in the Parisian region. Our aim is to provide advice on how a restoration experiment should be conducted in order to maximize its success.