Pam Catcheside woking in a make-shift lab at Flinders Chase National Park in 2010. Photo: D. Catcheside.

Over the last few months, our colleagues at DEW’s Biodiversity Data Team have been processing over 5,500 fungi records to upload them to the Biological Databases of South Australia (BDBSA). This has well over tripled the number of fungi records and expanded the available fungi taxonomy in BDBSA.

The data uploaded has largely come from Pam Catcheside’s huge project to extensively collect and describe South Australian macrofungi. Pam retrained as a mycologist after having taught biology in schools in the UK and Adelaide for decades. Since then, she has studied the macrofungi and has described many new species as an Honorary Research Associate of the State Herbarium of South Australia.

The extent of macrofungi data collected by Pam Catcheside now available in BDBSA.

The project to incorporate Pam’s data into BDBSA was initiated when the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board was updating their ‘Find Our Fungi’ project – a citizen science project that provides information on target species in the region and encourages the community to upload records of these species to the FungiMap Project on iNaturalist. As Board staff were researching and describing the locations of the target species, they realised that none of Pam Catcheside’s records were showing up on BDBSA. Pam had been diligently storing those records in a separate database, and the Board was able to fund the task of reformatting it for inclusion in BDBSA. Critical support provided by the State Herbarium and the Science and Information staff resulted in the quality assurance of reformatted data and in the inclusion of 420 new species of fungi referenced in BDBSA.

If you have any questions regarding the data contact the Bio data support team at DEWbiodatasupport@sa.gov.au

BDBSA data-sets are available through the Department’s NatureMaps application.

Compiled by Lily Mackintosh, DEW Biodiversity Systems Officer

Since 1998, the annual SA Environment Awards celebrate South Australians, who give their time, expertise and passion on behalf of our precious natural environment. The award is Presented by Conservation Council SA in partnership with Green Adelaide, the Department for Environment and Water and the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute.

Among this year’s recipients was Pam Catcheside, Hon. Research Associate of the State Herbarium of South Australia, who received a Lifetime Award for her work in mycology. Pam is well-known throughout Australia for her enthusiasm about fungi and her scientific contributions. Over the past 20 years she has made almost 5,000 collections, described three new species, one new genus, Antrelloides P.S.Catches. & D.E.A.Catches. (Swainsona 31: 82, 2018, 4.8mb PDF) and wrote papers on rare or interesting species. We all congratulate Pam for this great achievement!

Enid Robertson (1925-2016) received a posthumous Lifetime Award for her work in conservation. She was systematic botanist at the Waite Research Institute of The University of Adelaide, who was engaged to revise and edit the second edition of Part 4 of J.M. Black‘s Flora of South Australia (1957). Enid later worked with Prof. Bryan Womersley at the University’s Botany Department, work that was acknowledged with a seagrass being named after her, Posidonia robertsoniae, recognising her contribution to our knowledge of the Australian marine flora by Kuo and Cambridge in 1984. Her research focused on Asteraceae, Danthonia and seagrasses. Enid was remembered in a previous “Know Our Plants” blog post. The grass Rytidosperma robertsoniae Tiver (Swainsona 33: 36, 2020, 1.3mb PDF) was named after her.

A list of all 2023 award recipients, with more information about their achievements and short videos about the recipients, is available on the SA Environment Award website.

The State Herbarium of South Australia sits 15 km inland from the nearest sea and houses over one million, mostly dried, specimens. So why are we posting about World Oceans Day?

Despite our terrestrial location, the herbarium is home to significant collections of marine flora (seagrasses) and macroalgae (seaweeds). Not only that, but we are also helmed by seagrass expert and Chief Botanist Michelle Waycott.

FROM THIS: In situ photo of Metamastophora flabellata, being collected by volunteer Fiona McQueen on a collecting trip to Yorke Peninsula. Photo: F. McQueen.

TO THIS: Fiona collecting a part of Sarcomenia delesserioides from Pondalowie Bay to become a herbarium specimen. Photo: F. McQueen.

Treasure trove

The State Herbarium of South Australia is known to contain plant specimens, including the seagrass families, but its world-renowned algal collection may not be common knowledge to the general public. Housed within the herbarium are examples of all 10 South Australian species of seagrass and almost 1300 species of marine macroalgae! This algal species diversity is partly because the seaweeds in the Southern Ocean and its Great Southern Reef have the highest levels of species richness and endemism in the world and partly because of Prof. H.B.S. Womersley’s lifetime work in compiling the six-volume Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia with his team at the University of Adelaide and at the State Herbarium.

Of the more than one million specimens in the herbarium, at least 1500 are seagrasses, and close to 100,000 are seaweeds. But don’t mistake these relatively small specimen numbers for insignificance. Quite oppositely, seagrasses and seaweeds are vital to most oceanic functions.

TO HERE: The herbarium’s wet lab where algal specimens are prepared, mounted, studied and identified. Photo: J. Barrett.

Specimens of significance

World Oceans Day is designed to remind people of the importance of the world’s oceans and to encourage them to care enough to engage in marine protection. And so they should. The ocean covers 70% of the planet and supports every other organism. While many factors and organisms are at play, when it comes down to it, the functions of our oceans are very much a product of the plants and algae within:

AND FINALLY: The mounted specimens, which were floated onto a preparatory sheet before spending time in the drier and being attached to their final herbarium sheets.

• The vast majority of the planet’s oceanic oxygen is created by microalgae (phytoplankton), macroalgae (seaweeds) and plants (seagrasses). Naturally, photosynthesisers are also effective storers of carbon.
• Not only do the number of seagrass and seaweed species contribute to oceanic diversity, but these species also feed, house and protect countless other marine organisms.
• Both algae and seagrasses are the start of many food chains, nourishing animal groups as diverse as shellfish, crustaceans, birds, fish, marine mammals and even us.

These are but a few blips on the radar of seagrass and seaweed functionality and importance. Unfortunately, our marine ecosystems are in decline. Seagrass meadows are especially in dire straits… and dire gulfs, and dire bays.

A strong foundation

This is where the State Herbarium comes in. Our taxonomical knowledge creates foundational information on species and their distribution, abundance, and history. This provides a baseline of data that allows changes to be noticed and tracked over time.

The specimens in our collection are barcoded and databased. The complete datasets (including species name, collecting location and date, etc.) are sent to the Australasian Virtual Herbarium for broader use by anyone with an interest and Internet access.

Not only does our collection comprise the actual reference specimens, but also a wealth of associated data on species descriptions and locations. When collected and stored over time (the earliest seaweed in our collection is from 1799!) our specimens and data can allow scientists to identify and document change, as well as plan for restoration.

When next June rolls around and World Oceans Day pops into your head, I hope you think of our secret sea of marine specimens housed in The Old Tram Barn (2.7mb PDF) in the middle of an urban capital city, and remember our contribution to ocean conservation and public education.

Compiled by State Herbarium staff member Jem Barrett.

Area of severe stringybark dieback, with drooping she-oaks (Allocasuarina verticillata) being the only living trees. Photo: G. Keppel.

Dieback of trees due to drought is becoming increasingly common: Climate change is producing droughts that are hotter and more intense, and this can push trees beyond the limits of what they can tolerate. However, we still know little about the ultimate causes of tree mortality and how dieback progresses through time. Led by researchers Gunnar Keppel, MSc student Udo Sarnow and Stefan Peters from UniSA, in collaboration with Chief Botanist Michelle Waycott, State Herbarium of South Australia molecular botanist Ed Biffin, as well as Greg Guerin from The University of Adelaide, dieback of an isolated population of red stringybark (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha) in Spring Gully Conservation Park was investigated.

What will happen to this isolated population of eucalypts as droughts intensify under climate change? It’s not looking good but there is hope! Read more about the findings of this project on the Biodiversity in Oceania BLOG and in this research paper, published two weeks ago:

G. Keppel, U. Sarnow, E. Biffin, S. Peters, D. Fitzgerald, E. Boutsalis, M. Waycott & G.R. Guerin (2023). Population decline in a Pleistocene refugium: Stepwise, drought-related dieback of a South Australian eucalypt. Science of the total Environment  876: 162697.