Ecological Communities - A Biological Survey of the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges
SummaryThe Field Survey
The Southern Mount Lofty Ranges (SMLR) is an area of undulating to low hilly upland with steeper marginal ranges and hills. Originally covered in forests and woodlands the area has now been extensively cleared for residential and farming purposes. The study region comprises 6,282 km2, just 0.6% of the area of South Australia. Five surveys conducted between 1977 and 2000 and comprising 1,177 vegetation quadrats in the survey region, contributed to the floristic analysis. Due to past vegetation clearance patterns, most of the survey quadrats were concentrated in the western two/thirds of the survey region. Survey quadrats were located on both crown and privately owned land. At least one survey quadrat was located in each of the National Parks and Wildlife Act reserves in the study region. Three surveys conducted between 1995 and 2000 and comprising 157 quadrats, contributed to the vertebrate analysis (these surveys also included vegetation quadrats). The major vertebrate survey fieldwork occurred in three separate periods, from autumn to early summer 2000. Survey ResultsThe total number of survey quadrat records contributed to the Biological Survey Database were: 40,091 vascular plants, 157 amphibians; 2,051 reptiles, 6,518 birds, 2,027 mammals and at least 2,100 invertebrates. These figures exclude opportune records. Generally, the highest native plant species diversity was associated with Pink Gum, Messmate Stringybark and/or Long-leaved Box sclerophyll forest and woodlands, these communities averaging from 30 to 40 native species per quadrat. Low native species diversity was most commonly associated with River Red Gum, Manna Gum and SA Blue Gum savannah woodlands. These communities also contained a very high proportion of weed components, averaging at least 12 weed species per quadrat. The savannah woodlands are generally located on more fertile soils with a grassy understorey, making them susceptible to direct clearance, grazing and weed invasion. Above-average numbers of weeds (namely, six to ten species per quadrat) also occurred in drier woodland communities including Peppermint Box, Grey Box, Mallee Box and Drooping Sheoak communities. Four weeds of National Significance were recorded from survey quadrats, namely Blackberry (128 records), Boneseed (97 records), Bridal Creeper (78 records) and Gorse (38 records). The most commonly recorded perennial weed was Rough Cat's-ear followed by African Daisy. Of the confirmed 753 native taxa recorded from survey quadrats, 236 are rated at least Rare for the Southern Lofty herbarium region. Of these, 105 have a State rating and nine have a National rating. Five species were rated as Nationally Vulnerable: Olearia pannosa ssp. pannosa, Glycine latrobeana, Prasophyllum pallidum, Correa calycina and Spyridium coactilifolium, the latter being the most commonly recorded with 19 records. Of the 13 native taxa endemic to the Southern Lofty herbarium region, six were recorded from survey quadrats. Of these, Olearia grandiflora and Pultenaea involucrata are locally common. Two plant communities surveyed in the study region have been nominated as Nationally Threatened Ecological Communities. These are the swamps of the Fleurieu Peninsula and Peppermint Box grassy woodland. The swamps were specifically targeted by two of the surveys included in this Biological Survey report and hence have been comprehensively surveyed. The swamp communities also contain the highest numbers of conservation rated species. Peppermint Box woodlands are very rare in the region and this association was recorded at only one survey quadrat. State threatened plant communities recorded during the survey include Long-leaved Box dominated Open Forest, Manna Gum Woodland, Grey Box grassy Low Woodland, Swamp Gum Low Open Forest and Low Woodland and Candlebark Open Forest. PATN exploratory data analysis program was used to classify the 585 plant species records from quadrats into 41 groups based on the similarity of their floristic composition. These 41 groups formed 10 main alliances based on similar over storey species. Of the 31 species of native mammals known to reside in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges (SMLR) at the commencement of European settlement in 1836, only 22 can now be confirmed as currently resident within the region These consist of one monotreme (the Echidna), nine marsupial, three rodent and nine bat taxa. The status of the Platypus is uncertain with only a few unverified records in the last ten years. Of the eight extinct species, seven are marsupials and one is eutherian (placental). The Koala has been introduced to the region and become naturalised. During the survey, a total of 2,027 mammal records of 18 species were made (excluding bats and domestic stock) over 157 survey quadrats. Three of the current resident mammal species have a threatened status at National or State level, the Southern Brown Bandicoot - Nationally Endangered and State Vulnerable, the Platypus (current existence in SMLR is unconfirmed) - State Endangered and the Koala (introduced to the SMLR) - State Rare Two hundred and ninety three bird species have been recorded for the study region, including 36 oceanic species and eleven introduced species. This represents 63% of the total bird species recorded within South Australia. One hundred and thirty nine species are considered resident. One hundred and fifty seven bird species were recorded during the Biological Survey. Four sub-species: the Mount Lofty Ranges Southern Emu-wren, Spotted Quail-thrush, White-throated Treecreeper and Chestnut-rumped Heathwren are endemic to the SMLR. However, the SMLR is an "island" of woodland and forest, and is the western extreme of the range of many south-eastern Bassian species, some of which exist as isolated populations in the study region. Fifty of the bird species recorded for the SMLR have legislated conservation ratings. Twenty of these species were recorded during the survey. In addition, the Mt Lofty Ranges Task Force has identified 37 species in the Mt Lofty Ranges which do not have a legislated conservation rating but which are known to be declining and considered at risk. Forty-two native and two introduced reptile species are currently accepted as being resident in the study region. Of these, 37 native reptiles and both the introduced species were recorded during the survey. Four small skink species were the most frequently and commonly recorded species, comprising 78% of all records. These were the Garden Skink, Three-toed Earless Skink, Bougainville's Skink, and the Eastern Three-lined Skink. Four reptile species were each recorded at only one quadrat: the Pygmy Copperhead, Eastern Stone Gecko, Eastern Water Skink and the Little Whip Snake. Six species recorded from the region have conservation ratings under State or Federal legislation. The highest rated species, the Flinders Worm Lizard, is Nationally Vulnerable and endemic to South Australia; however, it was not recorded during the survey. Cunningham's Skink and the Carpet Python are both considered Vulnerable for South Australia, and both were recorded opportunistically during the survey. The three species rated Rare for South Australia (Olive Snake-lizard, Heath Goanna and Yellow-bellied Water Skink) were also recorded during the survey. South Australian endemic species recorded during the survey were Pygmy Copperhead, Adelaide Snake Lizard and Southern Rock Dtella. All six of the resident native frog species known to occur in the SMLR were recorded during the survey: the Painted Frog, Marbled Frog, Brown Froglet, Bull Frog, Brown Toadlet and Brown Tree Frog. One hundred and fifty seven frog records were obtained from the survey quadrats, with records being obtained from 66 of the 157 survey quadrats. The Brown Froglet was the most commonly recorded species, followed by the Bull Frog. Excluding ants, more than 197 species of invertebrates from 86 families were recorded from 74 survey quadrats. The most commonly recorded Orders were Collembola and Coleoptera (Beetles). Thirty-one ant genera were recorded from 95 survey quadrats. Only the Camponotus genus was identified to species level, and 13 species were recorded. The Monitoring River Health Initiative (MRHI), which is a coordinated national river bio-assessment and prediction scheme, included 51 sites from the Mount Lofty Ranges. Further work from 1997-1999 involved sampling another 450 test sites as part of the AUSRIVAS (AUStralian RIVer Assessment System) program. This included a further 211 sites from waterways in the Mt Lofty Ranges study area from the Gawler Creek catchment in the north to the Finniss River in the south. An overview of the aquatic macro invertebrates found at these sites is presented which identifies biodiversity 'hotspots', describes the rare species and gives a summary of the bio-assessment ratings for each site. Some comments are also included about the threats and opportunities to address river health issues in the study area. Finally a series of conservation management recommendations are provided covering: recommendations for further research/survey work and a brief discussion of the biodiversity conservation challenges ahead for the SMLR Vegetation MappingThe vegetation of the Mount Lofty Ranges, of which the Biological Survey study region forms part, was mapped in 2000. One hundred and fifty two vegetation groups were described for the mapping region, using a combination of survey site data, interpretation of aerial photography, ground-truthing and literature survey. The 152 groups have been summarised into 51 groups for the purpose of the map display according to common dominant over storey species. These vegetation maps are part of an ongoing program to ultimately produce vegetation maps at three regional scales to cover the whole State. Reference: Armstrong, D. M., Croft, S. J. and Foulkes, J. N. ( eds) (2003). A Biological Survey of the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia 2000-2001. Department for Environment and Heritage, South Australia.
Full ReportA full report of 'A Biological Survey of the Southern Mount
Lofty Ranges, South Australia' is available as Acrobat PDF files.
Part 1 - Contents,
Acknowledgements, Introduction and Methods (800Kb
PDF) Part 4 - Appendices (I to XXIX) (3.5Mb 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. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||
| This page was last modified 2007-10-24 | ||
|
||
