Supplementary Form C – Subsection 3

Purposes of the action

The ANBG SAVING THREATENED PLANT SPECIES project involves practical action to improve the long-term viability of Australian plant species through improved management of ex situ plant and seed collections. A national assessment of ex-situ collections of threatened plant species will support targeted development and enhancement of ex-situ collections as a resource for potential recovery efforts.

Summary of outcomes:

  • A database query to provide a snapshot of genetic diversity for threatened species in the ANBG living collections and seed bank material is finalised. • The ANBG’s collection records for the > 300 CE, EN and VU-listed species will be combined with holding in partner botanic gardens to identify the extent of holding for most species. These will be used to identify species that are underrepresented in ex situ collections or have low levels of diversity captured. This information will be combined with input from OEH regional staff to further refine target species for further accession of material.
  • Planning for improved genetic diversity capture in collections will lead to improvements tothe way ANBG collects material for conservation including protocols to capture useful information and genetic diversity for species recovery.
  • A list of 20 target species to be selected for further research and field work to ground-truth source populations and undertake new collections will be compiled. Species have been selected based on expanding diversity in existing collections (both ANBG and other institutions) and complementing current species conservation programs. Naturally the operational list is larger than the stated target to allow for alterations to be made in the field dependent on variable weather conditions, accessibility and species phenology.

Proposed methodology and equipment

Most species will be targeted at known locations in orderto monitor population numbers. We will attempt to collect seed for banking at the National Seed Bank for all species.For Pomaderrisreperta,we will collect according to the methodologies required to complete research in the NSW Environmental Trust Research Grant 2015/RD/0004 “Seed biology, cytology and production of threatened Pomaderris”. This project requires seed lots from 30 individuals per population to be collected. Where this is impractical we may accession a series of 30 genotypes per population as cutting material to be propagated and maintained at the ANBG. This material will be carefully collected with the aim of not significantly reducing the canopy and thus impacting the health of the plants. Plants propagated via this method could be used for a future translocation in cooperation with OEH.

The seed collecting methodology will be dependent on the number of adult plants available. For all species (other than the P. reperta) seed for banking will be achieved using standard National Seed Bank (NSB) collecting protocols (see attached) either by bagging plants with fine mesh bags to catch dehiscing seed and returning later to collect or by collecting off the plants directly. The aim isremove less than 10% of the standing crop for the season across a large number of individuals (>50) in the populations and to collect multiple populations if possible. If feasible an estimate of population numbers will be taken using standard survey methods (quadrats, transects, counts etc) to gauge total numbers and contribute to knowledge of the species trajectory.

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