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Emerging literature on climate adaptation suggests the need for effective ways of engaging or activating communities and supporting community roles, coupled with whole-of-system approaches to understanding climate change and adaptation needs. We have developed and evaluated a participatory approach to elicit community and stakeholder understanding of climate change adaptation needs, and connect diverse community members and local office bearers towards potential action. The approach was trialed in a series of connected social-ecological systems along a transect from a rural area to the coast and islands of ecologically sensitive Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia. We conducted 'climate roundtables' in each of three areas along the transect, then a fourth roundtable reviewed and extended the results to the region as a whole. Influence diagrams produced through the process show how each climate variable forecast to affect this region (heat, storm, flood, sea-level rise, Climatic Change (2015) A participatory systems approach to understanding climate adaptation needs fire, drought) affects the natural environment, infrastructure, economic and social behaviour patterns, and psychosocial responses, and how sets of people, species and ecosystems are affected, and act, differentially. The participatory process proved effective as a way of building local empathy, a local knowledge base and empowering participants to join towards future climate adaptation action. Key principles are highlighted to assist in adapting the process for use elsewhere.

Schoeman J, Buckley YM, Cherry H, Long RL & Steadman KJ (2010). Inter‐population variation in seed longevity for two invasive weeds: Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. monilifera (boneseed) and ssp. rotundata (bitou bush). Weed Research50, 67–75. Summary Seed longevity has a major influence on the success of weed management and eradication programmes. A correlation between responses to a controlled aging test performed at 45°C, 60% relative humidity (RH) and seed persistence in the field has recently been suggested. Here we investigated whether collections of differing quality of two closely related invasive weeds, Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. monilifera and ssp. rotundata (boneseed and bitou bush, respectively), had different seed longevity using the controlled aging test. Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. monilifera fruits were collected from across five Australian states, and C. monilifera ssp. rotundata from one state, covering their invasive ranges. Seed quality was assessed visually and using tetrazolium staining, and a series of germination tests established appropriate germination conditions. The controlled aging test was run for a subset of collections. Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata seeds died more quickly (time to lose 50% viability, P50 = 16 days) than the C. monilifera ssp. monilifera collections (P50 = 47 days) when aged at 45°C and 60% RH. This difference was significant even considering the large differences in longevity between C. monilifera ssp. monilifera populations (P50 = 35–61 days; probably due to differences in maturity at collection). Based on a published correlation, we predict that mature C. monilifera ssp. monilifera may have a long‐lived (>3 years) seed bank and C. monilifera ssp. rotundata may have a transient (<1 year) seed bank. This suggests the two sub‐species should be considered separately when designing effective control measures.

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