Botanic gardens in the age of climate change - PlantNetwork

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Theme 4
ROLE OF BOTANICAL GARDENS DURING THE EPOCH OF
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRESSURE AND GLOBAL CLIMATE
CHANGE
Vakhrusheva Lyumyla & Bagrova L.
vakhl@inbox.ru, Vernadsky Taurida National University, Simferopol, Ukraine
Climate change and the extending ecological crisis require the expansion of a spectrum of
botanical garden tasks. Traditionally botanical gardens have been forming the collections of
exotic species, selecting and introducing new sorts into different regions. Modern conditions of
the 21st century demand the following additional functions for botanical gardens:
1. become reservations of the protected local flora, since climate change causes new additional
threats for these species;
2. territories of botanical gardens should contain plots with the saved native phytocoenoses that
represent the local and natural vegetation zone;
3. recommended to satiate artificially these plots with protected species with similar ecological
requirements, corresponding to the ecological habitat of the phytocoenose.
It will allow to: 1) acquaint local populations with endemic, relic flora which will be
an important contribution by scientists to ecological education of the public and also an
implementation of the program of the United Nations “Decade of education for sustainable
development”; 2) organise scientific teaching for the local population about threats to plant
species; 3) organise education for university students with the purpose of introducing them to
protected species of local flora and vegetation. These experiences are shared in collaboration with
the Taurida University’s Department of Botany and Geoecology and Nikita Botanical Garden
(Yalta, Crimea).