COSMOS MAGAZINE
Credit: Johan Mouchet
A century of data shows botanic gardens are at full capacity, impacting their ability to meet scientific and conservation goals.
Credit: Yana Vandeborne
Researchers propose a global "meta-collection" where 3,500 botanic gardens collaborate to protect endangered plants.
Credit: David Clode.
Botanic gardens house over 105,000 plant species (30% of all land plants), but keeping them alive requires significant effort, resources, and data management.
Credit: Yana Vandeborne
Using data from living collections, researchers created a tool to analyse 2.2 million records from 100 years of operations in 50 botanic gardens worldwide.
Credit: Simon Wiedensohler
Researchers found that botanic gardens have stopped growing in size and plant diversity due to limited resources and restrictions around acquiring wild specimens.
Credit: Jingyu Liu
Researchers stress the need for global collaboration to address climate change and protect species, but fear botanic gardens are losing the battle to prioritise biodiversity loss.