The Hotspots Project

Points covered:

• What are hotspots?
• What is the Hotspots Project?
• What are its aims?
• What are the implications for biodiversity conservation?

Words to know:

• ENDEMIC - native to one area or continent only.
• NARROW RANGE ENDEMICS - species restricted to very small areas.
• RANGE - the area in which a species is found.
• RESERVE SYSTEM - the system which selects natural areas for conservation reserves.
• INVERTEBRATES - animals with no backbone, such as insects.

Hotspots are areas with many endemic species. The Hotspots Project, consisting of scientists at the Australian Museum and the National Parksand Wildlife Service, is concerned with endemic species with narrow ranges. This project aims to determine whether reserve design in New South Wales is effective in protecting endemic species with narrow ranges.

Using data from the Australian Museum collections, the Hotspots Project is identifying narrow range endemics and their distributions. The Museum already has a comprehensive collection of species, especially inverebrates, from many parts of Australia and this resource is being used in new and different ways with the aid of computer databases.

The are numerous benefits from the Hotspots Project. These benefits include:

• better data for planning the conservation of a wider spectrum of biodiversity than is possible at present.
• collaboration between the Australian Museum and NPWS to pursue a new approach to biodiversity conservation.
• computerisation and data enhancement of the largest source of biodiversity information in New South Wales - the invertebrate collections of the Australian Museum - and the ability to use these data in future projects.

The Hotspots Project is attempting to answer scientific questions that have long-term biodiversity management implications. These include:

• do areas of endemism for plants and vertebrates relate to areas of endemism for invertebrates?
• are various invertebrate groups endemic to the same areas?
• what are the environmental factors important for determining hotspots for narrow range endemics?

Winston Ponder
Malacology
Australian Museum