Presence-absence of plant habitat specialists in 15 patches of dry calcareous grassland.

Background: Dry grasslands on calcareous bedrock in warm climates around the Oslo Fjord are naturally fragmented biodiversity hotspots. This habitat geographically coincides with the most densely populated area of Norway. Many habitat specialists, along with the habitat itself, are red-listed because of land-use change, forest encroachment, and invasive species that cause habitat loss and greater isolation of remaining patches.

Population viability analysis with species occurrence data from museum collections.

The most comprehensive data on many species come from scientific collections. Thus, we developed a method of population viability analysis (PVA) in which this type of occurrence data can be used. In contrast to classical PVA, our approach accounts for the inherent observation error in occurrence data and allows the estimation of the population parameters needed for viability analysis.

A general approach for PCR-amplification and sequencing of chloroplast DNA from crude vascular plant and algal tissue.

A universal and reliable sequencing approach suitable for evolutionary and phylogenetic studies of most plant species has been developed. The initial step in the approach is PCR with primers from conserved regions in the chloroplast genome. Prior to PCR a simple DNA extraction is carried out where lysed tissue is embedded in agarose and dialyzed.