As climates in our region continue to change, managing landscapes, ecological communities and species to promote resilience and climate adaptation will be important for maintaining rich biodiversity and ecological functions. Biodiversity refugia modelling now underway will identify suitable areas for the long-term persistence of threatened, rare and keystone species in the ACT and region under plausible future climate scenarios. This analysis will contribute to evidence-based decision-making for nature conservation policy, research and management. Community knowledge, monitoring and input into adaptation to climate change is a priority area in the ACT along with the relationship between climate change and Eucalyptus Dieback, and the potential impacts on frog breeding seasonality.
Desired outcomes
An informed community with the knowledge to incorporate climate adaptation approaches in their interactions with nature.
Priority areas
Knowledge exchange will focus on a range of professional and community partners, including land managers, volunteers and emergency services agencies. A particular focus will be on disseminating restoration approaches that consider future climate, for example revegetating with climate adjusted provenances and species mixes.
Future investment focus
- Awareness raising and capacity building - information sharing on local biodiversity climate adaptation issues, adaptation pathways planning in response to specific issues, and development and dissemination of best practice case studies
- Supporting dissemination of information on restoration approaches that consider future climate
Building on existing investment
The ACT Government conducted biodiversity adaptation pathways workshops in 2015 and 2016 to engage the community on plausible future climate scenarios and their implications on biodiversity in the ACT and region.
The ACT Government is working with CSIRO, the National Herbarium and others on provenance trials in response to Blakely's Red Gum (Eucalyptus Blakelyi) dieback.
Desired outcomes
Improved information on the occurrence of dieback in the ACT and possible options for reducing the impact of dieback, in particular that which is affecting vast populations of Blakely's Red Gum.
Priority areas
Detailed mapping and analysis will inform the location of trials. Investment will focus on supporting trials to improve our understanding and management of dieback, in conjunction with a regionally coordinated response.
Future investment focus
Recent observations using satellite imagery have identified a significant increase in the incidence of dieback in Blakely's Red Gum - a key species in the ACT's threatened box gum woodlands. It is likely that dieback is impacting other ecologically important Eucalyptus species such as Ribbon Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) based on recent observations.
Building on existing investment
The ACT Government has recently mapped the occurrence of Blakely's Red Gum dieback and is undertaking research to look at ways of managing this threat.
The ACT Government is working with CSIRO, the National Herbarium and others on provenance trials in response to Blakely's Red Gum (Eucalyptus Blakelyi) dieback.
Desired outcomes
To continue to gain a better understanding of they hypothesis that frog calling and breeding is occurring earlier than it used to in the past due to the impacts of climate change on frog behaviour.
Priority areas
The pairing of scientific climate change research with community engagement through Frogwatch to generate data regarding
- the timing of breeding of frogs in the ACT region, and how this timing may have changed since the early 1980s
- collection of much needed base line data to support conservation actions aimed at protecting frog populations and their ecosystems.
Future investment focus
To continue to investigate the relationship between frog behaviour and climate change, and to raise community awareness of climate change using frogs as a local example.
Building on existing investment
Frogwatch is an important citizen science program helping to monitor frog populations across the ACT and region, however the research into monitoring frogs in relation to climate change is new.