The aim of this project is to compile land use and management practices and their observed and measured impacts and effects on vegetation condition. The results provide land managers and researchers with a tool for reporting and monitoring spatial and temporal transformations of Australia’s native vegetated landscapes due to changes in land use and management practices. Following are the details for the Big Scrub Rocky Creek Dam, NSW.
Pre-European benchmark - analogue vegetation: The site was originally Lowland Subtropical Rainforest on basalt-derived and alluvial soils. The forest is distinguished by its dense, uneven canopy comprised of typically two to three tall tree layers. Eucalypts and brushbox (Lophostemon confertus) may be present as sparse emergent. Characteristic life-forms include buttressed trees, strangler figs, stands of bangalow palms (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), woody vines and large epiphytes.
Brief chronology of changes in land use and management:
- 1840: Intact rainforest
- 1862: Area opened-up for selection
- 1900: Cedar getters select large trees
- 1910: Rainforest cleared and converted to pasture for dairying
- 1911-1948: Area used for grazing dairy cattle
- 1948: Area acquired for public use (water storage)
- 1950-1989: Minimal management - land in transition (open public space)
- 1950-1952: Rocky Creek Dam constructed
- 1983-1990: Commenced experiments using assisted regeneration on small test plots
- 1991-2000: Large scale assisted regeneration (25Â ha) by converting lantana thickets to rainforest
- 2001-2011: Minimal management.
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
This work was funded by ACEAS, a facility of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) project.
Lineage
Information is compiled by year from published and unpublished sources. It includes qualitative and quantitative observations. It represents a structured narrative. Once compiled this narrative is translated into 22 indicators of vegetation condition which are grouped into three condition components: vegetation structure, species composition and regenerative capacity.
The pdf is a compilation of historical land use management of the site using 12 core attributes which describes the transformation of a native vegetation community relative to its reference state.
The spreadsheet provides the scores on the effects of the land management practices on the 22 indicators. Each indicator is scored from 0 to 1 for each year of the historical record; where 1 represents the reference state for each vegetation and environmental indicator, and 0 is where that vegetation indicator and/or ecological function is absent. The spreadsheet is used to sum and weight the indicators into the respective components of vegetation condition i.e. regenerative capacity, species composition and vegetation structure. The weighted transformation scores are then added to produce a single transformation index of vegetation condition for each year of the historical record. The results could be graphed and annotated to show the response of the plant community under different land use and management regimes.
Data Creation
Step 1. Select a representative site in terms of soil and landscape, and pre-European vegetation community.
Step 2: Locate that site using google earth and record its co-ordinates in the VAST-2 Chronology Datasheet
Step 3: Review relevant literature for the site and region, compiling information on land use history and associated land management practices. Simultaneously record for same year effect and impact of those practices on vegetation condition.
Step 4: Identify a group of specialists with ecological knowledge about the site who can revive, validate and identify gaps in the chronology and the accuracy of the data.
Step 5: Translate the observations from step 4 into 22 separately accessed vegetation condition indicators.
Step 6: Circulate the results of scoring of the 22 indicators and their aggregates including the graphs to the specialists identified in the step 4.
Step 7: Send results to Richard Thackway for incorporation into the ACEAS portal.
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