{"id":3180,"date":"2020-08-31T06:33:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T06:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/?p=3180"},"modified":"2020-09-07T07:06:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T07:06:47","slug":"israels-forests-give-shelter-to-countrys-most-endangered-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/en\/weather-climate\/israels-forests-give-shelter-to-countrys-most-endangered-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s forests give shelter to country\u2019s most endangered plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Israel\u2019s forests give shelter to country\u2019s most endangered plants\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cHqvsX6-1Gg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A new study, conducted in collaboration between the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael &#8211; the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) and the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, aimed to determine which endangered plants were able to find refuge in the planted forests of the country. In addition, the researches wanted to know how and why these plants have been able to survive in these new habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto Ori Fragman-Sapir, a botanist and the scientific director of the Jerusalem\nBotanical Gardens, endangered plants grow in various habitats. However, a\nparticular group of endangered plants is disappearing faster than any other in\nIsrael. Those are plants that grow in deep soils and usually accumulate in\nvalleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDeep soils\nare commonly considered to be among the most fertile soils, making them highly\nattractive for agricultural purposes. When modern agriculture developed in\nIsrael and farmers started using deep plows and herbicides, all the endangered\nplants disappeared from the valleys,\u201d Fragman-Sapir explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cInterestingly, a lot of those plants survived in the JNF-KKL forests, some of which also planted on deep soils,\u201d he adds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"802\" height=\"532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-30-at-18.28.59.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-30-at-18.28.59.png 802w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-30-at-18.28.59-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-30-at-18.28.59-768x509.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 802px) 100vw, 802px\" \/><figcaption><em>Tumbling Jerusalem Sage (Phlomis pungens) \u2013 a herbaceous plant native to the Middle East. Photo by Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The endangered\nspecies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are\n426 endangered plant species in Israel and another 400 rare species on the\nverge of becoming endangered. According to Fragman-Sapir a few dozens of those\nspecies can be found in JNF-KKL forests, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/redlist.parks.org.il\/taxa\/Phlomis%20pungens\/\">Tumbling Jerusalem Sage<\/a> (<em>Phlomis pungens<\/em> \u2013 a\nherbaceous plant native to the Middle East), the <a href=\"https:\/\/redlist.parks.org.il\/taxa\/Phlomis%20chrysophylla\/\">Golden-leaved Jerusalem Sage<\/a> (<em>Phlomis chrysophylla<\/em> \u2013 a\nflowering plant native to South West Asian mountains), and <a href=\"https:\/\/redlist.parks.org.il\/taxa\/Lavandula%20stoechas\/\">French Lavender<\/a> (<em>Lavandula stoechas<\/em> \u2013\nanother flowering plant native to the Mediterranean).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For\nFragman-Sapir and his team, this finding raised some critical questions about\nthe future of those plants, first and foremost: Is the forest actively\npromoting the growth of the plants, and provides them with an ideal habitat? Or\ndo they just about make it in that environment? \u201cBased on the findings of the\nstudy, the latter, unfortunately, has proven to be true. However, that had been\nour guess in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As stated\nby Fragman-Sapir, Israel\u2019s natural environment is limited to pockets or\nislands, which holds, especially for endangered plants, whose habitat is highly\nfragmented due to the decline in deep fertile soils. In this context, it is\ncrucial to find sites where the endangered species can be optimally protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe think\nthat the JNF-KKL forests are a promising habitat for that purpose,\u201d says\nFragman-Sapir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe\nquestion now for JNF-KKL is, \u2018do they want to contribute to the conservation of\nthose plants?\u2019 which I believe they do. The ecologists of JNF-KKL are very much\ninterested in transforming forests into sustainable and biodiverse ecosystems. Even\nthough endangered plants have not really been on their agenda, they understand\nthat outside of the forests these plants don\u2019t stand a chance,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the next\nstep, the scientists had to figure out how to protect the plants, and not only\nthat but to ensure the survival of the species inside the forests. To this end,\nthe researchers went to known as well as potential hotspots within the\ndifferent JNF-KKL forests, surveyed them, and tried to understand why and how\nthe plants are growing there. Among the JNF-KKL forests that were studied by\nthe researchers was the Yatir forest, Israel\u2019s largest planted forest located\non the edge of the Negev desert in the south, and the Gilboa forest at Mount\nGilboa in the Jezreel Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nscientists also compared some of their new findings to older observations made\nduring previous studies to see if any significant changes have occurred around\nthe plant clusters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany of\nthe plants were actually surveyed before, and listed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/redlist.parks.org.il\/\">Red Data Book on Endangered Plants in Israel<\/a>. That\u2019s also why we knew where we could find\nthe sites with deep soils. However, we wanted to find out more specifically\nwhere in the forests you can find those pockets of endangered plants,\u201d says\nFragman-Sapir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSometimes you even come across completely unknown sites. In the Gilboa Mountains, for example, we found valleys of endangered plants that we didn\u2019t know about at all. We did know the area, but we had no idea that those plants were growing there. So it goes to show that you can always find something interesting and surprising,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"646\" height=\"456\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-31-at-08.46.56.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-31-at-08.46.56.png 646w, https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screenshot-2020-08-31-at-08.46.56-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px\" \/><figcaption><em>French Lavender (Lavandula stoechas) \u2013 a flowering plant native to the Mediterranean. Photo by Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>How to\npreserve the plants?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report does\nnot only contain the number of species and their locations, but also\nrecommendations on how to preserve the plant populations and how to manage the\narea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the\nconservation of the plants, the report suggests different measures, including\nthe transplanting of species, establishing plant shelters, and the thinning of\ntrees in the proximity of some very rare species concentrations. Additionally,\nthe report recommends reducing the herding of cattle in some areas to limit\ngrazing activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJNF-KKL has protocols mainly referring to the management of the trees. They weren\u2019t aware that endangered species were also growing in their forests. Therefore new strategies are needed to incorporate these plants into the forests management plans,\u201d says Fragman-Sapir. This also happened with the rangers of the forest. Sometimes we would take them on one of our surveys, and they were astonished by some of the beautiful endangered species we\u2019ve shown them. So the awareness about these species is still relatively low, but the ambition to preserve them is there,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This ZAVIT article was also published in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishjournal.com\/commentary\/opinion\/320867\/israels-forests-give-shelter-to-countrys-most-endangered-plants\/\">The Jewish Journal<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishjournal.com\/commentary\/blogs\/319990\/in-times-of-covid-19-science-must-count\/\" target=\"_blank\">&nbsp;<\/a>on 08\/27\/2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study, conducted in collaboration between the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael &#8211; the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) and the Jerusalem &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":3228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"post-meta-fields":{"_edit_lock":["1599462408:11"],"_edit_last":["11"],"subtitle":["Israel is known for having performed one of the world\u2019s most extensive tree-planting endeavors. What many people don\u2019t know is that today these forests are home to some of the most endangered plant species in the country"],"_subtitle":["field_59d3d36ea7fe1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_oembed_a9cb14244799450724a1cca9e690a9d2":["{{unknown}}"],"_oembed_7bd9cde2897854b8ca75ee6b3287041c":["<iframe title=\"Israel\u2019s forests give shelter to country\u2019s most endangered plants\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cHqvsX6-1Gg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>"],"_oembed_time_7bd9cde2897854b8ca75ee6b3287041c":["1598855600"],"_thumbnail_id":["3228"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3180"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3259,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180\/revisions\/3259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zavit.org.il\/intl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}