Managing plant populations in fragmented landscapes: restoration or gardening?
Richard J. HobbsSchool of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia. Email: rhobbs@murdoch.edu.au
Australian Journal of Botany 55(3) 371-374 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT06088
Submitted: 24 April 2006 Accepted: 21 August 2006 Published: 18 May 2007
Abstract
Ecosystem fragmentation results in major changes in several environmental and biotic parameters that affect the ability of plant populations to persist. All stages of the plant life cycle may be influenced in either negative or positive ways by the changed biophysical settings caused by fragmentation and associated changes in the surrounding landscape. This may result in plant populations being lost or significantly reduced from patches of native vegetation, leading to the need for active management intervention. This intervention may include management of threatening processes, reversal of ecosystem degradation, or the reintroduction of plants of species that have been lost from an area. These management actions range from preventative management through to active restoration. In the present paper I explore the question of whether there is a limit to the degree of intervention that is desirable in conservation terms, beyond which we are no longer conserving but rather cultivating and gardening, i.e. creating an artificial and potentially unsustainable system. I discuss this question in relation to management of remnant vegetation in urban and agricultural settings and suggest that a careful mix of species-based and process-based management is required for us to succeed in the goal of biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes.
Acknowledgements
I thank David Coates and the Symposium Organising Committee for inviting me to participate in the Flora Conservation Symposium in Perth in September 2005. I thank Colin Yates for his ongoing collaboration and insightful analysis of threatened species management, and the many people with whom I have discussed this topic both before and after the symposium. Comments from three anonymous referees greatly improved the draft manuscript.
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