Conservation ecology and ecological research
- Biodiversity condition assessment
- Biodiversity values and ecology of non-remnant vegetation
- Specialised habitats
- Understanding ecological processes
- Applied ecological assessment and monitoring
Ecological and biogeographical research provides essential information needed for the conservation assessment and management of Queensland's communities and ecosystems. Research in a variety of vegetation communities is helping to understand ecological processes and environmental roles provided by vegetation and wildlife .
Biodiversity condition assessment
Policy demands have recently identified vegetation condition as a major component of native vegetation management, primarily to assist decision-making for developmental approvals, incentive payments and market-based investments. Regional Natural Resource Management groups are also interested in vegetation condition, given its recent identification as a national environmental indicator for reporting targets. At the property scale, land managers are increasingly becoming aware of the challenge to demonstrate duty of care, and recent strategies such as the Delbessie Agreement require landholder self assessment of leases for renewal.
BioCondition is a vegetation condition assessment tool that provides a measure of how well a terrestrial ecosystem is functioning for biodiversity values. It is a site-based, quantitative and therefore repeatable assessment procedure that provides a numeric score that can be summarised as a condition rating of 1, 2, 3 or 4, or good through to poor condition for biodiversity. . The BioCondition manual provides a set of attributes by which a patch of vegetation can be assessed for condition against a benchmark. Benchmark documents are available for a subset of Regional ecosystems. Where not available, the reference site manual describes a methodology for the derivation of benchmarks.
Biodiversity values and ecology of non-remnant vegetation
In Queensland, remnant vegetation is defined for the purpose of the Vegetation Management Act 1999. Although regrowth vegetation may not provide the entire functionality of remnant vegetation, it plays an important role in the provision of habitat for biodiversity, salinity mitigation and improving soil condition. Research work is being conducted in the mulga lands of inland southern Queensland to document the biodiversity values of various ages of regrowth at the landscape level.
Specialised habitats
Queensland supports a very diverse flora and fauna. Some of these species are restricted to localised specialised habitats, such as spring wetlands, including mound springs of the Great Artesian Basin, and coral cays. Ecological research in these specialised habitats assists in formulating sustainable planning and management activities.
Understanding ecological processes
Research into understanding the processes that impact on ecosystems is imperative to formulating sustainable management for these systems. Fire and droughts have played an important role in shaping much of the Australia's landscapes and the composition of the fauna and flora within them. Developing fire management guidelines and understanding the influence of climate and grazing on ecosystems, can assist in predicting climate change impacts and guide adaptive management.
Applied ecological assessment and monitoring
With ecological understanding, the impact of a particular species or management activity can be assessed and monitored over time. For example, the impact of horse riding on designated trials in the protected area estate of southeast Queensland is being assessed and monitored over time.
Last updated: 29 April 2009