ABSTRACT

Biodiversity values under the New South Wales (NSW) Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 are assessed in part according to the number and cover of native plant species within each of six growth form groups (trees, shrubs, grasses and grass-like, forbs, ferns, and others). Here we revise 19 growth form descriptions and use an independent expert process to allocate the most common (primary) growth form to the native terrestrial vascular plant flora of NSW. Independent allocations made by three botanists concurred for 6,153 taxa (84.7 per cent of the flora) and the remaining 1,112 taxa were resolved via a structured consensus making process. Allocation of each taxon to primary growth form has generated a single point of reference for the most common growth form for each native vascular plant species, expressed in its mature state across the extent of its range in NSW. The work presented here was undertaken to support transparent, repeatable and rigorous assessments of the richness and cover of growth form groups for the NSW Biodiversity Assessment Method. However, our approach and findings will be relevant to any government agency, industry group or researcher that uses plant growth forms to simplify ecological complexity or to assess the site-scale biodiversity values of terrestrial vegetation.

摘要

《 2016年新南威尔士州（NSW）生物多样性保护法》规定的生物多样性价值根据六个生长形式组（树木，灌木，草和草样，Forbs，蕨类植物等）中每一种的天然植物种类的数量和覆盖率对其进行评估。在这里，我们修改了19种生长形式的描述，并采用了独立的专家程序将最常见的（主要）生长形式分配给新南威尔士州的本土陆生维管植物区系。三位植物学家的独立分配同意了6,153个分类单元（占菌群的84.7％），其余的1,112个分类单元通过结构化的共识制定程序解决。将每个分类单元分配给主要生长形式已为每种原生维管植物物种的最常见生长形式提供了一个参考点，该表达形式在新州范围内以其成熟状态表达。此处介绍的工作旨在支持透明，对新南威尔士州生物多样性评估方法对生长形式组的丰富度和覆盖率进行可重复且严格的评估。但是，我们的方法和发现将与任何使用植物生长形式来简化生态复杂性或评估陆地植被的现场尺度生物多样性价值的政府机构，行业团体或研究人员有关。