Addressing the threat to biodiversity from botanic gardens

Increasing evidence highlights the role that botanic gardens might have in plant invasions across the globe. Botanic gardens, often in global biodiversity hotspots, have been implicated in the early cultivation and/or introduction of most environmental weeds listed by IUCN as among the worst invasive species worldwide. Furthermore, most of the popular ornamental species in living collections around the globe have records as alien weeds. Voluntary codes of conduct to prevent the dissemination of invasive plants from botanic gardens have had limited uptake, with few risk assessments undertaken of individual living collections. A stronger global networking of botanic gardens to tackle biological invasions involving public outreach, information sharing and capacity building is a priority to prevent the problems of the past occurring in the future.     

全球生态问题与植物园的功能

本文概述了全球生态问题的热点和植物园可能起的作用。作者以许多具体的实例论证了资源植物和植物环境对人类生存的重要意义,阐明了植物园的功能,尤其在保护植物多样性,保护稀有濒危植物方面的重要作用。     

The unique role of sentinel trees,botanic gardens and arboreta in safeguarding global plant health

The ever increasing threat from new and emerging plant pests and pathogens poses a significant threat to plant health on a global scale. Once an organism is introduced and establishes itself in a new region, it is incredibly costly, both in terms of environmental impact and economic loss, to manage it. In most cases, eradication and containment programmes are most effective when the organism is identified early on. Further to this, the most cost effective management of all is preventing introduction in the first place. Therefore, the role for early warning systems in plant health is becoming more evident. Botanic gardens and arboreta are unique resources that can help provide such early warning and are, currently, often overlooked within plant health. The staff and volunteers that work within these botanical institutes are knowledgeable and passionate people, who if made aware of current threats, can become additional ‘eyes and ears’ for first detection of new introductions. Gardens can also help to increase available information on organisms and, potentially, identify the ‘unknown’ organisms through sentinel research. Plant collections provide a large range of exotic hosts (so-called ‘sentinels’) growing in diverse regions around the world which can be studied to determine susceptibility to potential pests that have not been introduced to their native ranges. The International Plant Sentinel Network (IPSN) has been developed in order to support such work and bring together botanical institutes with organisations working within plant health.     

The role of botanic gardens as resource and introduction centres in the face of global change

One of the consequences of global change, especially demographic and climatic, will be a demand for novel plant germplasm of all kinds suited to the new ecoclimatic conditions predicted and plant introduction will assume a new importance. As a consequence, botanic gardens will face an unprecedented opportunity to regain their role as introduction centres and become major actors in the assessment of new germplasm, both of ornamentals as well as other economically important plants. Plant introduction has remained largely unchanged over the past 400 years and is as often ad hoc, poorly organized and insufficiently collaborative, but if it is to meet the needs of today’s situation it needs to be overhauled. In particular: (1) the basis of plant introduction needs to be broadened; (2) closer cooperation with agricultural genebanks should be established; (3) agreement should be reached between botanic gardens and the agricultural sector on their respective responsibilities (4) the quality and sampling of the accessions should be more strictly controlled; (5) proper evaluation of the introductions before they are disseminated; (6) information on the accessions of introduced plants and their fate needs to be more effectively maintained and disseminated; and (7) full cognizance should be taken of policies to protect against invasive species and care should be taken to evaluate the risks that new introductions might represent. Finally, consideration should be given to preparing a set of guidelines or even a code of conduct for plant introductions by botanic gardens in association with other agencies.     

Strengthening the scientific contribution of botanic gardens to the second phase of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

The need for action on the global environment is now well understood and governments, agencies, non-governmental organizations and botanic gardens have all been working in their various ways to promote environmental sustainability and reduce species and habitat loss for at least 10–20 years. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) has been widely adopted, particularly by the botanic garden community, and has resulted in many successes despite failing to achieve its ultimate goal of halting the loss of plant biodiversity. The objectives and targets for Phase 2 of the GSPC, running from 2010 to 2020, mirror those of Phase 1 and had been largely agreed prior to their formal adoption at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya in October 2010. However, to be successful, the scientific contribution of botanic gardens needs to be strengthened, as does government policy and commitment. Botanic garden research to underpin conservation action, including the role of botanic garden horticulture, training and international capacity building, has a major part to play and needs to be better understood and better coordinated. We provide examples based on the experience of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in the UK and overseas. Government policy, at national and international levels, needs to reflect the fundamental importance of plant diversity in maintaining the biosphere and supporting humanity. The commitment of significant new resources is an essential prerequisite for success, but this needs to be well coordinated, inclusive of all stakeholders and carefully targeted. A further challenge is the need to integrate better the plant diversity-related activities of what are currently diverse and disconnected sectors, including agriculture, forestry, protected area management and botanic gardens.     

Bryophytes and lichens in 16th-century herbaria

The diversity of bryophyte and lichen collections in 9 of the oldest preserved herbaria (dating from ca 1542 to 1577) was compared, including the first reports of bryophytes and lichens from the ‘En Tibi’ herbarium (possibly 1542–1544) and the herbarium of Leonhard Rauwolf (1560–1563). Bryophytes and lichens formed only a minority in each herbarium compared to the numbers of vascular plant specimens; numbers ranged from representatives of 21 genera in the herbarium of Ulisse Aldrovandi to the single genus Conocephalum in the Rauwolf herbarium. The focus was on large, handsome species of bryophytes and macrolichens, apart from small amounts of additional species collected as ‘by-catch’ in mixed collections. All herbaria together included 34 genera of bryophytes (36 species and 10 specimens identified to genus level) and 13 genera of lichens (24 species and 4 specimens identified to genus level). The diversity of mosses was higher than that of liverworts, and pleurocarpous mosses were more diverse than acrocarpous mosses. The collectors probably aimed at selecting material that was either characteristic of the vegetation in the respective areas of collecting or used for certain purposes (or both). The former hypothesis is supported by the small overlap in taxonomic diversity between the herbaria, and the latter by the fact that several moss, liverwort, and lichen genera are included whose traditional uses are well documented.     

世界与中国植物标本馆概况简介

简介了《世界植物标本馆索引》的现状,并对《世界植物标本馆索引》中收录的中国信息进行了分析,同时对相关问题进行了讨论。