NOOSA BIOSECURITY PLAN 2026-2031 · Attachment 2 - Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2026 draft for stakeholder review

Climate change
Climate change significantly alters ecosystems, vegetation and habitat suitability and can
facilitate the spread of invasive plants and animals. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation
patterns, and extreme weather events such as bushfire, floods and droughts amplify biosecurity
risks and create new opportunities for invasive plants and animals to establish and thrive.

These climate-driven changes can make management more uncertain and difficult over time
and increase costs. Invasive species will respond in different ways under climate change
pressure. For example, we may see more tropical weed species moving southward into Noosa
Shire threatening existing native plants and habitats. The adaptive response to managing
invasive species will depend on the nature of the climate change impact and the species
concerned (see Table 1.2).

Information and modelling can help assess the suitability of regions for certain weed species
under a future climate to help land managers to adapt, target and bolster management
priorities in response to climate change (see Figure 1.1). WeedFutures.net profiles over 700
weed species and assesses and maps climate threats through habitat suitability modelling.




Figure 1.1. CLIMEX modelling of Mimosa pigra, an invasive species. The map at the top is the
current situation. The lower figure is a 2070 projection showing a decline in risk in northern
Australia and an increased risk in southern Qld. Source: Waldon.,D. et al. in CSIRO AdaptNRM.

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Noosa Biosecurity Plan DRAFT