The project seeks to guarantee the conservation of the Rumex rupestris plant, seriously threatened and classified as endangered.

The University of Santiago de Compostela seeks to guarantee the conservation of the Rumex rupestris plant, seriously threatened and listed as endangered. The initiative will work on understanding its transmaritime population dynamics, halting its decline and reintroducing it at the southern limit of its reduced world distribution, the archipelagos of southern Galicia (Atlantic Islands National Park).

Rumex rupestris is a coastal species that enjoys legal protection (Galician Catalogue of Endangered Species and Habitats Directive, among others). In the Iberian Peninsula it is only present on the western coast of Galicia, with a clear decline in its populations.

The project is based on the premise that it is necessary to accurately determine the environmental requirements of the species, as well as the dynamics of the relationship between the different nuclei. The species is disappearing on the Iberian coast and therefore it is intended to detect the source and destination nuclei through genetic characterization and establish a hierarchy of conservation of nuclei.

Thus, the project aims to establish the environmental limitations, in a context of climate change for this finicolous species, both from an ecological niche perspective and limitations in germination associated with temperature. In addition , the reintroduction will begin on the Island of Ons (where it became extinct in the last decade) and the nuclei will be reinforced in the Atlantic Islands National Park, the limit area of distribution.

Among the activities to be developed are:

• Census and cartography of the Iberian population.
• Determination of the climate niche and predictive models (current and future conditions).
• Sampling for genetic determination, seed for germination analysis and for conservation in a germplasm bank.
• Genetic characterization of population groups, phylogeographic relationships (source populations and target populations).
• Protocol for germination and propagation by rhizome. Obtaining and cultivating seedlings and installed on the Island of Ons (National Park). Reinforcements.
• Proposal and initiation of threat removal. Hierarchy of actions and areas to be conserved to guarantee the dynamics and future of the species.
• Dissemination and communication actions always in contact with the Atlantic Islands National Park and with the General Directorate of Nature Conservation, Xunta de Galicia.