Effects of Intensive Logging on Birds in Eucalypt Forest Near Bega, New South Wales

1985 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Smith
1990 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
PG Kodela

The modern pollen spectra for Eucalyptus forest and rainforest communities were investigated from 19 sites in the Robertson area on the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. Cluster and discriminant analyses were applied to analyse pollen distribution from within and from outside warm temperate rainforest stands and tall open eucalypt forest stands. Pollen abundance is compared with a number of plant abundance estimates of taxa within forests to study pollen representation at the forest scale. Pollen of Doryphora, Polyosma, Pittosporum, Hymenanthera, Tasmannia, Asclepiadaceae and most rainforest taxa investigated are poorly represented, while sclerophyll and open-ground taxa, particularly Eucalyptus, are better represented. The pollen of many native taxa do not appear to be well dispersed, and local pollen is commonly outweighed by pollen from regional sources. Pollen representation varied between taxa and sites, with factors such as vegetation structure, plant distribution, topography and disturbance influencing pollen representation.


Soil Research ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 863 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. P. Little

Red gradational soils at Batlow, in New South Wales, which are used for apple growing, have acid subsoils with exchangeable aluminium (Al) frequently in excess of exchangeable calcium (Ca). There is often inadequate Ca in the fruit cortex of post-harvest apples to maintain good fruit quality and this can lead to losses in cool-store. It is possible that Al in these acid subsoils has interfered with Ca uptake by the trees. The excessive use of nitrogenous fertilisers leads to soil acidity, and it was thought likely that this was exacerbating the subsoil acidity common in the district. In October 1992, soil analysis detected considerable ammonium in the surface 0·3 m at orchard sites at Batlow monitored for mineral nitrogen (N). This probably came from heavy spring dressings of fertiliser. One site examined in detail showed that about half of the ammonium had disappeared by January 1993, but a large nitrate envelope appeared with a peak at 0·6 m which in turn disappeared by April that year. This establishes that heavy applications of ammonium are nitrified, leached into the subsoil, and lost. Under such a high N regime, orchard soil profiles should be more acid than adjacent forest soils. However, it was found that the acidity of the surface soil was less, and the exchangeable Ca greater in the orchard soils, compared with soil profiles in the adjacent eucalypt forest, although amelioration of the subsoils had not occurred. Samples taken from representative sites at Batlow, at the 0–0·1, 0·1–0·2, and 0·3–0·4 m depths, were dosed with ammonium sulfate and leached with water in the laboratory for 23 days in a free-draining environment. Nitrate and ammonium were determined in the leachates. At the end of the experiment, the pH and exchangeable Ca, Mg, and Mn were determined in the leached samples. Only the neutral surface soils were able to nitrify ammonium effectively and nitrification was positively correlated with pH, and with exchangeable Ca and Mg. From this it is argued that the acidity produced by the addition of ammonium sulfate or urea will be nitrified in the surface but the acidity produced will be neutralised, provided it is accompanied by an adequate dressing of lime. Ammonium tends to remain in the surface soil, but if leached, it will not be nitrified in the subsoil. Nitrate leached into the subsoil will not be acid-forming but, if denitrified, may help to reduce acidity. For this work, the soil pH was measured in 1 KCl. So that readers can refer this to the pH in 0·01 CaCl2, a relationship was established between the two measures.


1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
DJ Barrett ◽  
JE Ash

Rainforest, ecotone and eucalypt forest species were grown for 22 weeks in glasshouse conditions under light, water and nutrient treatments. Plant biomass, leaf area and leaf biomass per plant increased in Eucalyptus sieberi, Eucalyptus fastigata, Pittosporum undulatum, Callicoma serratifolia, Elaeocarpus reticulatus, Backhousia myrtifolia and Ceratopetalum apetalum at high irradiance (1230-1670 μ-mol PAR m-2 s-1). Both E. sieberi and E. fastigata inhabit the relatively high light environments of northern aspects, upper southern aspects and ridge tops in the gully systems of south coastal New South Wales. Callicoma serratifolia, P. undulatum and E reticulatus are pioneer species of the ecotone around rainforest patches, and B. myrtifolia and C. apetalum are rainforest canopy species. Mean plant biomass under high irradiance was ranked: eucalypt species > ecotone species and B. myrtifolia > C. apetalum. At low irradiance (200-530 μ-mol PAR m-2 s-1) the trend observed was reversed where rainforest canopy and ecotone species produced greater plant biomass. Plant response to different water and nutrient treatments under glasshouse conditions showed that, while the light environment primarily governed plant response, interaction between treatments occurred which resulted in maximum plant biomass at relatively high levels of soil moisture and nutrients. Carbon partitioning was used as an indication of relative response to light treatments. The proportion of plant mass partitioned to leaves did not change between experimental treatments. The magnitude of the response of leaf area ratio and specific leaf weight to light treatment, however, was ranked: eucalypt species > ecotone species > rainforest canopy species. This suggested that species naturally growing outside the rainforest canopy maximised leaf area in proportion to plant mass for a given irradiance, presumably to maintain high growth rates.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Parnaby ◽  
Daniel Lunney ◽  
Ian Shannon ◽  
Mike Fleming

Hollows in trees are recognized as a critical and threatened resource for a wide range of fauna in Australian forests and woodlands, yet little data are available on the impact of fire on hollow-bearing trees. We report an opportunistic, post-fire assessment of the proportion of burnt, hollow-bearing trees that collapsed in stands near roads following low intensity prescription burns in three areas of mixed eucalypt forest in the Pilliga forests. Mean collapse rates on 29 plots (40 by 50m), separated by burn Area, ranged from 14?26% for a total of 329 burnt hollow-bearing trees. Collapse rates on individual plots ranged from 0?50%. Collapsed, hollow-bearing trees were predominantly older, with 40% of senescent trees and 44% of live stags collapsing. The best predictor in models of tree collapse was the presence of a basal fire entry point. We cannot determine the extent to which collapse rates on our plots are representative of burnt areas away from containment roads due to sampling limitations, but they appear to be higher than those reported from wildfire and more intense prescription burns in southern Australia. Our results point to an urgent need for comprehensively designed studies to address the impacts of prescribed burns on hollow-bearing trees.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. B. Lindenmayer ◽  
R. C. Lacy ◽  
H. Tyndale-Biscoe ◽  
A. C. Taylor ◽  
K. L. Viggers ◽  
...  

Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation can have major effects on the distribution and abundance of species (Saunders et al. 1987), often in unpredictable ways (Klein 1989; Tilman et al. 1994; Lacy and Lindenmayer 1995; Cunningham and Moritz 1998). An understanding of responses of species, which lead to persistence or extinction in such disturbed systems, is important for the effective management of many taxa in fragmented multi-use landscapes. One way to examine population dynamics in fragmented systems is to analyse the genetic characteristics of subpopulations in remnant habitat patches (Sarre 1995), borrowing from the population genetics literature for the interpretation of key effects. For example, it is well established that a small, completely isolated population will lose genetic variation rapidly due to genetic drift (Lacy 1987). However, loss of genetic variation within, and increasing differentiation between, subpopulations will be counteracted by inter-population dispersal. Theoretical models of metapopulation structure which describe connectivity and stability can be examined using various demographic input parameters. Importantly, such models can also produce predictions for genetic structuring, making the combined use of modelling and empirical genetic data an extremely powerful tool in examining the effects of habitat fragmentation. On this basis, we have recently commenced a series of integrated demographic and genetic studies of the Greater Glider Petauroides volans at Tumut in southern New South Wales. The study area near Tumut in southeastern New South Wales is characterized by an array of remnant patches of eucalypt forest (0.2?125 ha in size) that were created 15?65 years ago by the establishment of an extensive (50 000 ha) plantation of exotic softwood, Radiata Pine Pinus radiata and known as the Buccleuch State Forest (Routley and Routley 1975). Large areas of continuous native eucalypt forest occur at the boundaries of the plantation (Fig. 1), including those within the Brindabella and Kosciuszko National Parks, and the Bondo and Bungongo State Forests.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry F. Recher

ABSTRACT In Australia’s eucalypt forests and woodlands, co-habiting birds differ in the foraging manoeuvres or methods used to search for and take prey, the substrates and plants on which prey are found, and the heights at which foraging takes place. On the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, eucalypt forest and woodland birds foraged on different substrates between study plots, seasons, and years. As a result, the proportions of foraging manoeuvres differed in space and time as different foraging methods were used to obtain food from different substrates. Of the 32 species tested for the summer of 1980/81, 24 foraged differently between one or more of the three plots studied. In winter, nine of 15 species on two plots foraged differently between plots. Differences in foraging were found between seasons and/or years for 20 species, including when data from individual plots were combined to test for differences in foraging between summer and winter. Of 70 comparisons of foraging behaviour for individual plots, that is, excluding combined plot data, 50 differed between seasons and/or years. Significant spatial and temporal differences in foraging were recorded for all foraging guilds. Bark and foliage foragers differed most frequently between pairs of plots in all seasons and years, with aerial foragers showing the fewest differences. Between seasons and years differences were greatest among ground-foragers and foliage-foragers where respectively 76% and 80% of intraspecies comparisons on individual plots differed. The differences were the result of temporal and spatial differences in the types and abundances of foraging substrates and the prey available to foraging birds. Each species has its own unique requirements and management targeted at one or a few species will disadvantage others. Consequently temporal and spatial habitat heterogeneity is necessary for the conservation of avian biodiversity.


1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 219 ◽  
Author(s):  
PC Catling ◽  
RJ Burt

We examined the distribution and abundance of ground-dwelling mammals in the major eucalypt communities within 500 000 ha of eucalypt forest in south-eastern New South Wales. Data for 22 species of mammal are presented from 13 areas comprising 42 eucalypt communities. Two features were the abundance and widespread distribution of the introduced red fox and cat, and the absence of small wallabies (potoroo size) and low abundance of other medium-sized native mammals such as bandicoots. Six mammal species occurred in all areas and in most eucalypt communities. Although there were differences in the distribution and abundance of species between areas there was no significant difference between areas in the number of native and introduced species. Some mammal species were absent from some eucalypt communities, but no eucalypt community was devoid of ground-dwelling mammals and each had native and introduced species present. The E. fastigata group had the highest number of species (14) and one community (E. fastigata-E. cypellocarpa) contained the highest number of native (9) and introduced (4) species. The E. maculata group contained the lowest number of native species with eastern grey kangaroos absent and common wombats present in one community only. The results of this study suggest that management options for arboreal mammals may not apply to the ground-dwelling mammals. The ground-dwelling mammals present today in south-eastern New South Wales appear to be remnants of a more diverse fauna left after clearing, forestry activities and predation by introduced species. Some species are in urgent need of protection and management if they are to persist.


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