The thrust of the lecture is that three solutions introduced in the
passage would not give satisfactory result for preserving Torreya taxifolia.
This directly counters the passage's claim that the solutions can prevent
Torreya from extinction.
To begin with, the lecturer
asserts that reestablishment of Torreya to the coolest and dampest areas of the
microclimate is not likely to succeed. The areas are strongly affected by
climate and as a result disappearing these days. Due to the global warming, we
cannot find cool areas much. Moreover, wetlands in Northern Florida have
drained recently. Since the microclimate areas have gotten drier, there rarely
remain suitable places for Torreya to grow within the original location. In
this way, the lecturer's claim rebuts that of the passage; which suggests moving Torreya
to the same location where it inhabited long ago.
On top of that, the lecturer
contends that assisted migration of Torreya would not be helpful either. Moving
of the black locust tree can be an example. Once people relocated the black
locust tree to another area to preserve it, it spread so quickly that it killed many local plants
and trees. Since the outcome of the migration is unpredictable, it could not be
a suitable solution for the plant's encountering problem. This contradicts what
the passage indicates; the passage claims to plant Torreya to a new location
far from its original location.
Lastly, the professor points
out preserving Torreya in research centers cannot be a solution at all. It is
because the plants grown in the centers would not be able to resist to
diseases. Largeness and genetic diversity are needed for plants to survive to diseases. However, if Torreya is
grown in the centers, it would not have capacity to survive in long term. The
lecturer's argument opposes the passage's idea that conservation of Torreya in
research centers can protect the species.
To put in nutshell, the
lecturer maintains three solutions - reestablishment to original location,
assisted migration and preservation in research centers - are not good ways to
address the decline of Torreya. Since her demonstration is quite compelling and
plausible, it casts doubt on the passage which mentions these three solutions.