Climate risk assessment of potential threatened species for the living plant collections in the Melbourne Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV) has successfully launched their Landscape Succession Strategy 2016 – 2036 (LSS), and recently completed a report on the risk of increasing temperatures to the existing living plant collection. A key opportunity exists for the Melbourne Gardens by continuing to contribute to plant conservation by growing rare and threatened species within the living collection through a changing climate. This project builds on the work of the previous living collection climate risk assessment by identifying threatened plant species that could be suitable for adding to the living collection. Two climate projections were used that included urban heat and climate change in 1) an emissions limited Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenario (RCP4.5) by 2050, and 2) a business as usual climate scenario (RCP8.5) by 2070.