Format: ORAL

Samuel F. Brockington, Angela Cano

Cambridge University Botanic Garden, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

The ex-situ living collections of Botanc Gardens are distinct from other horticultural landscapes in being documented, in other words they are defined by the data that describe the collections. Consequently, ex-situ living collections individually and globally amass vast quantities of data, as they seek to track and dcoument the transient flow of biodiversity within and through networked ex-situ collections. But these data are rarely if ever comprehensively analysed to understand the performance, strengths and limitations of ex-situ collections. At the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, we have developed a bioinformatic pipeline called BGSmarR which will thouroughly analyse the data of a living collection in order to reveal the quality (or otherwise) of collection management - itself crucial for the sustainable maintenance and conservation of ex-situ diversity. Furthermore by combining these analyses across the multiple globally distributed living collections, we can reveal the global dynamics that enable and limit the functioning of ex-situ conservation. Here we report on the findings of these global meta-analyses, describing the rise and fall of ex-situ living collections over time, and the surprising and counterintuitive patterns that emerge from longitudinal and contextual approaches. On the basis of these analyses we identify global and cultural forces in play that are limiting our collective ability to manage high performance living collections, and preventing us from realising the our full portential to deliver ex-situ conservtaion in perpetuity.