An inventory of Queensland prioritised invasive plant species for management and research

Abstract

There are currently ~300 declared weeds in Queensland (QLD), Australia, but this list requires a review as the last known exercise dealing with weed risk assessment and prioritisation was undertaken about two decades ago. In this paper we propose an updated list of invasive alien (plant) species of significant concern in QLD, based on information derived from pest management plans of local governments, herbarium records and published/ grey literature, expert knowledge, and opinion from diverse groups of stakeholders. Weed diversity varies significantly between local government areas and regions. Regions on the mainland eastern seaboard of the State share similar weed communities, unlike
western regions and the Torres Strait islands, which share fewer, weed species. Stakeholders identified the top research and management priorities for the weed list. These were: studies involving biological control options (34.8% of respondents), public awareness and education (18.5%), effective herbicide-use and application techniques (15.2%), ecology, taxonomy and risk analysis (11.5%), and adaptive pasture management (9.3%). Based on occurrence and distribution across local government areas/regional jurisdictions and onground stakeholders’ perceived weed severity, a weed priority list of high-medium and-low impact scores for policy, research and management was compiled for each region and State-wide.