Biodiversity has been declining sharply at a global, regional and local level for many decades. Land use and climate change have led to a sharp decline in a large number of plant species. Over a third of Bavarian plant species are now on the Red List. However, long before a species is considered endangered, the size of its populations declines until they have finally disappeared. The extinction of a species is therefore always preceded by an extinction of its populations.
The aim of innovative and comprehensive species and nature conservation must therefore always be to mitigate, halt and reverse the decline of populations. Nature conservation actors have a wide range of approaches at their disposal.
In situ nature conservation preserves species and their populations in their natural habitat. The aim of in situ nature conservation is therefore to improve the conditions in the natural habitat so that the plants can reproduce successfully and new individuals can establish themselves. Measures to achieve this goal can include, for example, the removal of woody plants, the establishment of grassland utilisation, the creation of open ground or the reduction of nutrient input. If these measures are successful, the population decline at the site can be halted or even reversed.
However, modern nature conservation concepts always include ex situ nature conservation measures in addition to in situ nature conservation. This is particularly useful when in situ measures alone cannot improve the situation. In ex situ nature conservation, the genetic diversity of species and their site-specific variation are preserved in human care. For this purpose, seed material of endangered species can be stored in a seed bank or individuals of these species can be secured as propagation and conservation cultures in botanical gardens. Ex situ conservation thus serves as reinsurance for the future. Individuals grown from seed accessions or individuals from propagation and conservation cultures can contribute to supporting dwindling populations at any time or be used as starting material for reintroductions.
The seed bank Regensburg is therefore an important, sustainable and promising component of modern and integrative nature conservation. It has been established as part of various research projects at the University of Regensburg since 2009 under the leadership of Prof Dr Peter Poschlod and Prof Dr Christoph Reisch and is an important element of Bavarian nature conservation.
