A Case Study of Allocasuarina robusta Recovery Using History and Biogeography to Identify Future Priorities

Abstract

Identifying the cause of a threatened species can aid in how best to formulate recovery actions. Recovery can be based on broad concepts and may not reflect a specific community or species requirements. Urban sprawl and intensification of land are known as threatening processes. How a threatening process interacts with a threatened species can aid in the recovery efforts. In South Australia, the species Allocasuarina robusta provides an opportunity to understand how past land usage may direct recovery efforts. Information on past land usage can involve identifying and using data from multiple repositories. The investigation focused on the relationship between changes in land use and herbarium data to understand a relationship between a common and threatened species. As a species evolves and adapts, the conservation practices used, including the methods used for identifying future actions, needs to be reflective of a changing environment. A changing environment can have consequences to biodiversity, creating several issues for a land manager. Traditional species recovery techniques can slow the threatening process down. Sometimes these threats may be visible like grazing from fauna (native and introduced). The threat to Allocasuarina robusta is a change in land use originating from anthropogenic activities. Supplementary planting with tube stock is a well-grounded practice, but the implications from this practice may need further investigation. Natural regeneration is crucial for long term population survival, but in Allocasuarina robusta, this is not occurring. The Allocasuarina robusta investigation aims to explore the relationships between herbarium data and land-use histories to guide future recovery efforts.