Spread by the wind, the fungal rusts are among the most feared of all plant diseases. A 2016 myrtle rust outbreak on Lord Howe Island was contained, but now its unique plants are again under threat.
Saving our threatened species shouldn’t be seen as a cost, but rather a very savvy investment to ensure the support systems sustaining life on Earth remain intact.
Caley’s grevillea (Grevillea caleyi) occurs in Sydney. It needs fire to germinate but burns are hard to carry out near urban areas.
Tony Auld
Many threatened plant species aren’t being targeted for conservation. Identifying which are closest to being lost forever is the first step to protect them.
Creeping avens – a plant native to mountains in Central Asia and Europe.
Losapio/Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Without an emergency cull of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park, the land cannot recover from the bushfires – and threatened species are at grave risk of being annihilated.
Birds are disoriented by smoke and often cannot escape a fire.
James Ross/AAP
Our work represents the first assessment of what social and economic factors are connected to environmental degradation across the entire African continent.
Matchstick banksia (Banksia cuneate). There are only about 500 of these plants left in the wild at 11 different sites, with much of its habitat having been historically cleared for agriculture.
Andrew Crawford/Threatened Species Hub
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University