Digitisation and analysis of customary medicinal plant knowledge using biodiversity informatics

The overall aims of this thesis are to design and implement customary medicinal plant species information management system and to analyse the collated data using biodiversity informatics tools and resources. Australian customary medicinal plants comprise a major part of the biodiversity and form an inextricable link between biological and cultural diversity. Unfortunately, indigenous medicinal plant knowledge linked with these species is declining due to the loss of biodiversity, habitat destruction and acculturation. For developing effective conservation and adaptive strategies, easy access to relevant information is essential. However, the information on customary medicinal plants is geographically scattered among different indigenous communities, institutions and research organisations in heterogeneous format, rendering it difficult to access and limiting usability. Customary Medicinal Knowledgebase, accessible at http://www.biolinfo.org/cmkb is developed in collaboration with Aboriginal communities for collating, integrating, visualising, disseminating and analysing public domain data and first-hand information on customary medicinal plants. To acknowledge and protect the intellectual rights of the Aboriginal communities, access to sensitive first-hand information is password protected, accessible only by authorised community members and approved researchers. Further, CMKb is also compliant with current international biodiversity informatics standards, specifically Economic Botany Data Standards, Darwin Core and Dublin Core for easy integration with national and global biodiversity informatics initiatives. Culturally valuable customary medicinal plant species-rich habitats are distributed across Australia and conservation of these habitats is important. However, studies to identify and conserve such areas are hampered due to the vastness of the continent and lack of adequate data on the spatial distribution of customary medicinal plants species-rich habitats. Models were developed to identify culturally significant species-rich hotspots using habitat suitability modelling tool Maxent and bioclimatic variables. Further, the predicted models were weighted using customary medicinal uses from CMKb to evaluate the cultural worth of the predicted hotspots. In recent times, similar to global trends, profound impacts of human-induced climate change are observed on Australian biodiversity. To devise adaptive strategies for conservation it is important to understand the impact of current and future climate change on the spatial distribution of the customary medicinal plant species. Using Maxent and a bioclimatic envelope, models for twelve multi-therapeutic and culturally important customary medicinal plant species were developed for current and future (decade 2020, 2050 and 2080) climate scenarios using four General Circulation Models (GCMs). The results from this study will help us to further understand the implications of these changing scenarios on customary medicinal plant species and its consequences on Aboriginal customary knowledge.