FEATURE ARTICLES
Conserving alpine habitats and species: challenges, collections and collaboration Megan J. Hirst, Victorian Conservation Seedbank, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
A major challenging and confronting issue in the Australian alpine system is the relatively recent (that is, since European settlement) proliferation of agents of negative change to these areas of high conservation value and biological importance. The consequent impacts of these changes require serious attention to allow the maintenance of ecological connectivity and biodiversity and to
Meg Hirst
halt the continuing demise of biodiversity across these systems. This article explores some of the challenges, the collections underway and collaborations, including those of the Victorian Conservation Seedbank, aimed at conserving alpine ecosystems.
Challenges Some of the major challenges to the alpine environment include the long-lasting effects of hooved feral animals (Driscoll et al. 2019), infrastructure development (Good 1995), tourism (Pickering et al. 2003), the introduction of numerous exotic species (Johnson & Pickering 2009), increasing fire severity and frequency (Camac et al. 2003) and the effects of increased warming from climate change on plant physiology and community composition (Pickering 2007). These are not equally contributing factors across the entire alpine region, and not all alpine ecological communities are affected equally. Within the alpine zone there are known threatened ecological communities with limited geographic distribution such as alpine sphagnum bogs and associated fens that are currently listed as endangered under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. These specialised habitats are of national interest due to their role in regulating and filtering water flows to major river systems. They are considered an integral part of Australian mainland water catchments, valued at approximately $9 billion to the annual Australian economy (Worboys et al. 2011). These bogs and fens form unique communities that contain many endemic
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THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 56 WINTER 2021
