Fairall's Honeysuckle  |  

Threats Fairall s Honeysuckle is threatened by disease; fire; drought; climate change; disturbance and seed predation by birds; small mammals and insects.

Fire intensity and severity was high in all subpopulations (DBCA 2021) This type of event is increasingly likely to reoccur as a result of climate change; and the severity and frequency present a major threat of extinction for the Fairall s Honeysuckle.

Such changes in climate may cause widespread plant mortality in plant ecosystems; as many plants are vulnerable to drought stress and hydraulic failure; particularly if fire has preceded drought (Burgman and Lamont 1992; Allen et al. 2010 Choat et al. 2012).

The drier conditions amplified by climate change are predicted to cause further population contractions for Fairall s Honeysuckle and many other Stirling Range flora and fauna (Harley Barrett 2008).

Non sprouting shrubs are sensitive to decline and extinction from fire driven mechanisms; such as death of standing plants and seeds; failure of seed release and or germination; failure of seedling establishment; interruption of maturation or developmental growth and failure of seed production (Keith Keith 1996).

Spatial simulations of plant extinction have further shown that extinction probability increases for non sprouting perennial shrubs; with increased frequency and scale of fire events (Bradstock et al. 1998).

The species is threatened by several fire related threats; including high frequency fire; fire disease interactions; fire drought interactions; and fire granivore interactions.

Dieback may also interact with fire to increase the impact of the disease and accelerate collapse of obligate seeding plants as shown for the Stirling Range Dryandra (Moore et al. 2014 Barrett Yates 2015).

This species is obligate seeding and Consequence major serotinous; in that adult plants die from fire; though Trend increasing fire releases the seeds to the soil.

After a nine year fire interval; species regeneration on Mt Success was extremely poor and densities of Fairall s Honeysuckle fell dramatically (Harley Barrett 2008).There have been further declines in plant densities after a bushfire in impacted the Success and Yungemere subpopulations (DBCA 2021).

The species is threatened by several fire related threats; including high frequency fire; fire disease interactions; fire drought interactions; and fire granivore interactions.

An increased Extent across the entire range frequency of drought is predicted along with overall increased mean temperatures (CSIRO Bureau of Meteorology 2015).

Drought reduces the resilience of this species to other environmental threats.