Leontopodium palibinianum. ©Bondarchuk Svetlana.

Climate change is likely to extensively affect distribution and abundance of plant and animals species.

For rare, endemic species with narrow niche requirements, climate change represents a new extinction threat whose potential impact is poorly understood. This is especially true for endemic vascular plants in the Russian Far East because there currently insufficient data exists to predict risk of extinction.

By improving existent knowledge on biology and habitat parameters of endemic plant species, we plan to define tolerance ranges for multiple species. This project will conduct detailed research on populations of 7 endemic plant species across varying habitat conditions to define optimal conditions and tolerance levels for key parameters. By analyzing their current condition and survival strategies we will assess extinction risk in response to climate change for each species and prepare recommendations for conservation of endemic species in situ and ex situ.

We will carry out field researches of 7 endemic species populations of Asteraceae Family (Leontopodium palibinianum, Artemisia pannosa, Saussurea fulcrata, S. kolesnikovii, S. nakaiana, S. sovietica, S. vyschinii) representing different habitats. Endemic species populations are located quite remotely from each other and to reach them we will use RSG funds. We plan to organize field researches on the several peaks in Southern and Middle parts of the Sikhote-Alin Mountain Range in three districts of Primorsky Krai of the Russian Far East. During the field time we will set up plots to describe population structure of endemic species and specificity of their habitats in the Sikhote-Alin MR. Studying relationship between endemics and habitats we will assess adaptive possibilities and survival strategies of endemic plant populations and have opportunity to determine the role of these species in plant communities and the risk of their extinction due to climate change. Also we will receive morphological, biological and ecological characteristics of endemic species that will allow to clarify their status, origin, and geography. Our achievements can be a good basis for planning conservation activities and decreasing threats for endemic species. Our team includes specialists in botany and geography. Also we will involve in our project participants from the ecological club “Uragus”.