Suz Everingham 'Integrating plant vulnerability to drought in conservation science'

Suz Everingham Postdoctoral Researcher, Western Sydney University ABSTRACT Drought events attributed to anthropogenic climate change are forecast to occur more frequently, over longer duration and/or at higher intensity in many regions in the future. Increased, longer and more severe droughts will have substantial impacts on plant fitness, reproduction and survival. Yet, there remains a large disconnect between our understanding of drought-induced mortality in individual plants or populations and species’ level predictions of extinction risk due to drought. As a result, extinction risk due to drought is likely to be routinely underestimated in conservation practice. In our study, we assess the exposure to future increases in drought of ~2,800 global plant species that are listed as threatened on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. We also present a new framework that we are working towards that incorporates information on plant physiological responses to drought in species extinction threat assessments. This seminar was recorded as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture webinar series.