Background Information

We are the conservation agency of rare orchids:

Like all conservation biologists we view all of nature's diversity as important and having inherent value.  Through conservation, which applies biological fields to the maintenance of biological diversity, we try to preserve the diversity of orchids.  Diversity is simply genetic variation among a species, there can be a large range in diversity among a species especially if geographical barriers, depletion of habitat, or resource loss occurs.  Individuals that have been separated say, geographically can develop different characteristics because they be living in regions that differ in variables like temperature, amount of sunlight, amount of nutrients, etc.   This is were we come in, since there are these variations among species, we believe it is important to preserve these genetic variations.

_{photo courtesy of Sharon Yates http://www.sws.org/travel/quakertown/}

Wetlands are very important habitats because they harness diverse species that could not survive elsewhere.  They are areas that are saturated by water almost year round and dictates the soil development as well as the development of plants and animals that live in it.  Wetlands are found everywhere, from the tropics to tundra, because they are an essential part of renewable water sources and natural water management.  The orchids that we hope to save are found only in wetlands just like these.  The only way to save these rare species is to protect the very wetlands these orchids live in.

We discussed above the importance of genetic variation in species and how this variation occurs naturally.  We must also understand how we can define variation.  The term allele is used to denote a genetic characteristic and is used to distinguish small genetic differences between an individual species.   

_{Dr Paul Craig; R.I.T. (Electrophoresis)}

We determined the orchid species' diversity by taking leaf samples from the two orchids and analyzing them through protein electrophoresis.  We found the allozyme locus to be polymorphic in both species of orchid.  This locus had two alleles; slow and fast.  The gel electrophoresis are shown below.  There are 3 populations for the two rare orchids, every - indicates an allele.

Orchis isozymus, Population 1 (individual 1...15 from left to right)

Orchis isozymus, Population 2 (individual 1...15 from left to right)

Orchis isozymus, Population 3 (individual 1...15 from left to right)

Orchis polyzymus, Population1 (individual 1...15 from left to right)

Orchis polyzymus, Population 2 (individual 1...15 from left to right)

Orchis polyzymus, Population 3 (individual 1...15 from left to right)

From this, and conclusions drawn from calculations using this data we were able to determine the diversity of both types of orchids out of their three populations.  Each population is located in one of the wetlands, therefore, using our data we were able to determine which four wetlands were going to purchase and conserve.  Please see "Our Plan" section for more information.