Botanic gardens: Future challenges and responsibilities

Maunder, Michael

doi:10.1007/bf02291879

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…The increasing awareness among industry representatives to tackle this issue (Peters et al 2006) has resulted in attempts to establish new codes of conduct within the horticultural trade (Baskin 2002;Reichard 2004). Botanical gardens play a unique role within the horticultural sector by contributing to the selection and propagation of new plant varieties (Dosman and Del Tredici 2003;Anderson et al 2006), the conservation of endangered or economically valuable species, public education and recreation (Maunder 1994;Muller 1994;Maunder et al 2001;Waylen 2006) and in many cases they are of historical as well as cultural signiWcance. However, in contrast to the current philosophy of botanical gardens, it was the importance of trade and commerce as well as competition between colonial powers in the 18 and 19th centuries that drove the establishment of botanical gardens in the tropics (Heywood 1987).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Assessing the risks of plant invasions arising from collections in tropical botanical gardens

et al. 2008

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Tropical botanical gardens have played an important role in the distribution, naturalisation and spread of non-native plants worldwide. Appropriate guidance relating to risk assessments of established botanical garden collections is often scarce. This paper uses the Amani Botanical Garden (ABG), Tanzania, as a case study to highlight appropriate methods to assess the risks posed by existing and future collections in tropical botanical gardens. Key considerations included Weld assessments of species status using accepted deWnitions of naturalisation, spread and invasion, distinguishing between intentionally and unintentionally introduced species, identifying taxonomic patterns in invasion status, assessing patterns in habitats colonised, and determining how knowledge of invasion elsewhere might be useful in forecasting risk. Out of the 214 alien plant species surviving from the original plantings in the early 20th century, 35 had only regenerated, 38 had locally naturalised while 16 had spread widely in the botanical garden. A further 16 species with unclear introduction records in the garden were also found to be naturalised. A greater proportion of introduced species were potentially invasive than might be expected from previous analyses of global Xoras. Overall, just over half of all naturalised and spreading species were also observed in forest fragments and edges. The proportion of species that had been recorded elsewhere as naturalised/invasive was signiWcantly related to their status in ABG, 1 C with 94% of spreading species and 79% of naturalising species being recorded as naturalised or invasive elsewhere, compared to 57% of species that were only regenerating and 49% of species only surviving. Recommendations for further risk assessments of botanical garden collections are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Assessing the risks of plant invasions arising from collections in tropical botanical gardens

et al. 2008

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“…2500 botanic gardens in 156 countries, with over 6 million accessions of living plants, and approximately 80 000 taxa in cultivation (the estimated number of vascular plant species in the world is only roughly three times that figure; Wyse Jackson 2001). In this way, the worlds botanical gardens have become unmatched collections of biodiversity (Heywood 1990;Maunder 1994;Marris 2006). In the richest botanical gardens, more than ten thousand plant species are displayed over areas of only a few tens of hectares.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are the living collections of the world’s botanical gardens following species-richness patterns observed in natural ecosystems?

Pautasso

Parmentier

2007

Bot. Helv.

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Botanical gardens aim to promote the awareness, study and conservation of plant species diversity, but little is known about the species diversity of botanical gardens themselves. We therefore investigated whether the species richness of the worlds botanical gardens is related to their size, age and geographical location by compiling data from gardens in 124 different countries. The data show that even in these highly managed ecosystems, species richness can be described in terms of a relatively small number of large-scale patterns. As with most natural ecosystems, there were positive species-area and species-age relationships. There was also a positive latitudinal gradient in species richness, which contrasts with the trend observed in natural ecosystems. This discrepancy may be due to the use of heated greenhouses at high latitudes, the rarity of old botanical gardens in the tropics, and the problem of poverty in developing countries, where most hotspots of plant biodiversity are located. There is thus a need to allocate more funds to botanical gardens in species-rich regions. This study also calls for an increase in the coordination of data management between botanical gardens.

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“…Consequently, assessing whether these lowland temperate species are directly threatened by climate change, and preserving in ex situ collections those of them that are climate-sensitive, is mostly not directly perceived as a necessity for these institutions. Botanic gardens are still too reactive and receive species for ex situ management at a too late stage (Maunder 1994). This lack of proactivity explains why Implications for the management of ex situ collections Plant species are already endangered by habitat loss, and the additional threats posed by climate change make plant conservation even more of a challenge (Hawkins et al 2008;Wyse Jackson and Kennedy 2009).…”

Section: Occurrence Of Climate Change-vulnerable Species In Ex Situ Cmentioning

confidence: 98%

Seed banking of endangered plants: are we conserving the right species to address climate change?

Godefroid

Vanderborght

2010

Biodivers Conserv

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The increasing awareness of the effects of climate change on plant distributions in situ has made the appropriate application of ex situ techniques more crucial. These ex situ conservation techniques need to be targeted to priority species identified at risk from climate change. The present paper assesses the sensitivity of plant species to climate change in Belgium and explores the current conservation status of those species potentially vulnerable to climate change. We then checked whether these species were included in ex situ collections. The whole Belgian flora has been assessed (a total of 1,396 native plant species). We evaluated whether each of these species occurs in a ''climate changevulnerable'' habitat, having therefore a higher probability to be impacted by climate change. The assessment revealed that there are at least 415 native plant species (30% of the Belgian native flora) that appear to be vulnerable to climate change during the next decades. Results also showed that about one-third of the species currently included in the red list may have their situation made potentially worse due to climate change. In addition, depending on the region, between 45 and 67% of the species that are currently not threatened in Belgium are likely to become so due to climate change. It also appeared that only 32% of these climate change-vulnerable species are currently held ex situ. We conclude that there is a need to identify gaps in existing ex situ collections as an urgent priority and ensure that species potentially vulnerable to climate change are conserved ex situ.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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Botanic gardens: Future challenges and responsibilities

Cited by 32 publications

References 5 publications

Assessing the risks of plant invasions arising from collections in tropical botanical gardens

Assessing the risks of plant invasions arising from collections in tropical botanical gardens

Are the living collections of the world’s botanical gardens following species-richness patterns observed in natural ecosystems?

Seed banking of endangered plants: are we conserving the right species to address climate change?

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