Ecological Communities - A Biological Survey of the Nullarbor Region

• Summary
• Full Report

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Summary

The Field Survey

Survey camp on the Nullarbor Plain near Ivy Cave (Photo: Steve Doyle)

The largest population of the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat occurs on the southern Nullarbor Plain (Photo: Tony Robinson)

McKenzies Dragon now known from widely separated populations to the west and east of the treeless plain (Photo: Peter Canty)

Brown snakes like this Dugite are common on the Nullarbor Plain (Photo: Steve Doyle)

The Biological Survey of the Nullarbor area was a cooperative project between the Department of Conservation and Land Management in Western Australia and the Department of Environment and Planning in South Australia. The standard quadrat sampling methods and the resulting biological databases developed on this survey went on form the basis of such broad-scale surveys in both States.

The vertebrate fauna and vegetation of a 32,000,000 ha Study Area encompassing the Nullarbor region in Western and South Australia was surveyed in April and September 1984. The species of plants and vertebrates were systematically recorded from an array of fixed quadrats centered on sixteen campsites distributed across the Study Area. The quadrats were selected to represent the biological diversity of the Nullarbor and provide a data base of assemblage descriptions amenable to quantitative analyses for ecological pattern. All previous biological work carried out on the Nullarbor was summarised and an extensive bibliography provided.

The patterns of the plant, mammal, bird and reptile sub-sets of the assemblages were described using the numerical taxonomy package NTP and the biological gradients identified were related to environmental variation across the Study Area. Finally the total presence/absence database was analysed and eleven distinctive community-types recognised in relation to three major axes of change in the district's biota. In turn, these were correlated with climatic and geochemical scalars of the physical environment. An expanded conservation reserve system was designed to encompass the identified biotic variation of the whole Nullarbor region.

Survey Results

The Nullarbor region biological survey consolidated, for the first time, a considerable amount of existing data on the plants and animals of this large and important region of southern Australia. Many new records were added from the survey quadrat sampling, and, for the first time a systematic picture of the biological variation across the region was obtained.

A total list of 794 species of vascular plants was compiled for the study area from the survey results and the herbarium collections available in Perth and Adelaide.

Fifty-six species of mammals are now known to have occurred in the Nullarbor region at the time of European settlement of which 38 (27 native and 9 introduced species) were recorded during the survey. An examination of the extensive un-dated sub-fossil bone material from a large number of caves spread across the region revealed a number of additional species, which may also have lived there, in recent times.

Two hundred and forty nine (including 3 introduced species and 89 species of water, shore or sea birds) bird species are known from the region. An old nest and eggs of the extinct Masked Owl was discovered in Ivy Cave, and data was collected on the Nullarbor Quail-thrush and the Naretha Blue Bonnet, the only two forms restricted to the Nullarbor area.

Eighty-five species of reptile and one frog are now known from the area Eleven of the pre-1984 records for the area were not encountered during the survey, but these were species of sandy surfaces and are more common outside the study area. A large number of new records and range extensions were recorded for an area previously poorly known as far as reptiles are concerned.

Reference: McKenzie, N.L. and Robinson, A.C. (eds.). (1987). A Biological Survey of the Nullarbor Region, South and Western Australia in 1984. S.A. Department of Environment and Planning, W.A. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Full Report

A full report of 'A Biological Survey of the Nullarbor Region, South and Western Australia' is available as Acrobat PDF files.

Part 1 - Contents, Acknowledgements and Introduction (6.5Mb PDF)
Part 2 - Results


• 2a - Vegetation (4.5Mb PDF)
• 2b - Mammals (4Mb PDF)
• 2c - Birds and Reptiles (5.5Mb PDF)
• 2d - Biological Patterns in the Nullarbor Study Area (2.5Mb PDF)
Part 3 - Conclusions and Conservation Recommendations and Resource Material and Bibliography (7.4Mb PDF)
Part 4 - Appendices

Part 4a - Appendix I (10.6Mb PDF)
Part 4b - Appendix (II to IX) (4.5Mb PDF)

Please note that some of the above files are large and may take a while to download and to search these files you will need to open the "Bookmarks tag" within each file. If you have any problems please contact Robert Brandle or phone (61 8) 8222 9471.