Introducing Populus: A Tool for Selecting Fremont Cottonwood Candidate Trees for Restoration Using Ecological Research Findings
Sean Mahoney1, Jacklyn PM Corbin2,3, Catherine A Gehring2,3, Thomas G Whitham2,3
1Department of Wildlife, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA; sean.mahoney@humboldt.edu
2Department of Biological Science, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA; jmcorbin@nau.edu
3Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes, Northern Arizona University; Flagstaff, AZ USA
We designed a web-based application to select appropriate trees from candidate populations of Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) for restoration based on the cumulative findings of over thirty years of research. Incorporating the results of scientific field studies into management plans continues to be a challenge; to ameliorate this, our tool provides land managers with recommended source populations of Fremont cottonwood based on the environmental characteristics of their specific region. Users provide geographic coordinates and characteristics of their site into a web-based Shiny R application. The provided information is then filtered against a database of climatic, ecological and occurrence data and returns a list of candidate populations for tree cuttings and seeds. With this tool we hope to: 1) Provide research-informed recommendations of candidate trees to land managers, 2) Increase the short- and long-term survivorship of planted trees to maximize ecosystem services, 3) Define and distribute a summary of best practices based on common garden experiments, 4) Identify trees which will be more resilient to the impacts of climate change in both present and future climatic conditions, and 6) Bolster community biodiversity by increasing the genetic diversity of planted trees. The Populus app provides land managers to a succinct recommendation which is customizable to their needs and objectives. With this tool, we hope to encourage the development of similar tools by academic research groups which facilitate restoration outcomes and increase collaboration with land management partners.