An adaptive framework for monitoring biodiversity in rangelands
Cooperative Research Centre for the Sustainable Development of Tropical Savannas
An analysis of threatening processes in the rangelands is used to identify
the questions that a rangeland monitoring framework might be expected to answer
as well as providing guidance for relevant management responses. The most significant
are to seek to identify the particular impacts upon rangeland biodiversity of:
- clearing of woody vegetation on rangelands
- grazing impacts leading to vegetation change not necessarily involving gross
structural simplification, including loss of perennial grasses and thickening
of native woody plants
- introduced unmanaged populations of herbivores and predators.
- changed fire regimes
- exotic grasses and other exotic plants
- changed water regimes
Existing pastoral monitoring programs operated by the States and Territories
do not provide data with the content or environmental comprehensiveness needed
to address these important issues.
We conclude that a system capable of answering significant questions in regard
to biological diversity over the long term should include a number of components,
including:
- elements of the existing State and Territory pastoral monitoring programs;
- increased application of remote sensing and its improved linkage to both
measures of landscape function and direct monitoring of biodiversity;
- additional wildlife (flora and fauna diversity) surveys designed to repeat
"landmark" surveys and validate surrogates or indicators;
- regular monitoring of populations of a range of selected species, emphasising
those most sensitive to prevailing adverse processes or otherwise identified
as good indicator species; and
- explicit linkage of monitoring programs for Parks and Reserves to their
equivalents on lands used for primary production.
We identify a minimum set of 11 indicators to provide a starting configuration
for an ultimately useful scheme. We acknowledge that these indicators do not
directly address all of the important issues in the rangelands and the utility
of many of them for indexing adverse processes or status of biodiversity is
unproven. However, together, they represent a consensus of opinion on those
threads of biodiversity regarded as the most prone to change.
View or download this technical reports:
- "The Framework" [PDF - 320KB]
- Background Paper 1 - "A review of changes in status and threatening processes"
[PDF - 2MB] and Appendices
A & B [PDF - 6MB]
- Background Paper 2 - "A review of pastoral monitoring programs and their
real and potential contribution to biodiversity monitoring" [PDF
- 1.2MB]
- Background Paper 3 - "A review of Information gathered from existing biodiversity
monitoring programs" [PDF - 663KB]
- Background Paper 4 - "Approaches to broad-scale monitoring of biological
diversity - a brief" [PDF - 131KB]
- Case Study 1 - "Biodiversity monitoring in Cape York Peninsular" [PDF
- 92KB]
- Case Study 2 - "Biodiversity monitoring in the Gascoyne-Murchison Strategy
area" [PDF - 243KB]
- Manual for biodiversity monitoring [PDF - 124KB]
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© 2001 Commonwealth of Australia
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Australian Natural Resources Atlas V2.0
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