Eprapah Creek Redland City Invertebrate Survey (original) (raw)
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Conserving invertebrate diversity in agricultural, forestry and natural ecosystems in Australia
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 1992
Continental Australia and Tasmania cover a wide range of latitudes from tropical regions in the north through the arid and semi-arid core to cool temperate regions further south. Vegetation is equally varied and because of this and the continent's isolation during the Tertiary, floral and faunal diversity and endemism are very high. Europeans a~'rived 200 years ago and since that time have markedly modified the landscape by clearing and changing the vegetation, predominantly for agricultural and urban development. Both accidental and deliberate introductions of stock, weeds, crops, trees and pasture plants have also caused enormous changes to Australiar, environments. In the last few years the deleterious effects of some of these changes have been realised, for example the extent of soil degradation. Measures are being taken to rcctify problems and ~cchniques are being introduced which benefit both primary producers and other users of the land and also nature conservation. Some of these measures for a more sustainable use of the land are illustrated here for four vegetaUon types, eucalypt woodland, native forests, grasslands and arid systems. They include adopting native tree species for limber production and native grasses for pasture, retention of native vegetation and paying attention to conservation of invertebrates in Pad<s and Reserves.
Austral Ecology
Taken literally, the aim of biodiversity monitoring is to track changes in the biological integrity of ecosystems. Given the overwhelmingly dominant contribution of invertebrates to biodiversity, no biodiversity monitoring programme can be considered credible if invertebrates are not addressed effectively. Here we review the use of terrestrial invertebrates, with a particular focus on ants, as bioindicators in Australia in the context of monitoring biodiversity in Australia's rangelands. Ant monitoring systems in Australia were initially developed for assessing restoration success following mining, and have since been applied to a wide range of other land-use situations, including grazing impacts in rangelands. The use of ants as bioindicators in Australia is supported by an extensive portfolio of studies of the responses of ant communities to disturbance, as well as by a global model of ant community dynamics based on functional groups in relation to environmental stress and disturbance. Available data from mining studies suggest that ants reflect changes in other invertebrate groups, but this remains largely undocumented in rangelands. The feasibility of using ants as indicators in land management remains a key issue, given the large numbers of taxonomically challenging specimens in samples, and a lack of invertebrate expertise within most land-management agencies. However, recent work has shown that major efficiencies can be achieved by simplifying the ant sorting process, and such efficiencies can actually enhance rather than compromise indicator performance.
Austral Ecology, 2004
Taken literally, the aim of biodiversity monitoring is to track changes in the biological integrity of ecosystems. Given the overwhelmingly dominant contribution of invertebrates to biodiversity, no biodiversity monitoring programme can be considered credible if invertebrates are not addressed effectively. Here we review the use of terrestrial invertebrates, with a particular focus on ants, as bioindicators in Australia in the context of monitoring biodiversity in Australia's rangelands. Ant monitoring systems in Australia were initially developed for assessing restoration success following mining, and have since been applied to a wide range of other land-use situations, including grazing impacts in rangelands. The use of ants as bioindicators in Australia is supported by an extensive portfolio of studies of the responses of ant communities to disturbance, as well as by a global model of ant community dynamics based on functional groups in relation to environmental stress and disturbance. Available data from mining studies suggest that ants reflect changes in other invertebrate groups, but this remains largely undocumented in rangelands. The feasibility of using ants as indicators in land management remains a key issue, given the large numbers of taxonomically challenging specimens in samples, and a lack of invertebrate expertise within most land-management agencies. However, recent work has shown that major efficiencies can be achieved by simplifying the ant sorting process, and such efficiencies can actually enhance rather than compromise indicator performance.
Forest Ecology and Management, 2002
Land snails, millipedes, carabid beetles and velvet worms (Onychophora) were methodically hand-sampled at 46 localities on paired plots in conifer or eucalypt plantations and in nearby native forest in northwest Tasmania. Native land snails and millipedes were less diverse in plantations than in native forests, and introduced land snails were several times more abundant in plantations. Many taxa, however, including a velvet worm previously considered to be threatened by plantation development, and including almost half the taxa represented by 10 or more specimens, were found at least as commonly in plantations as in native forests. Invertebrate conservation may be assisted by speci®c forestry operations, including windrowing, mound ploughing, and leaving waste prunings and thinnings to rot. Plantation development on cleared farmland can allow invertebrates to re-invade from adjacent bush remnants, reducing the risk of local extinctions. #
Austral Ecology, 2016
Resource pulses are a key feature of semi-arid and arid ecosystems and are generally triggered by rainfall. While rainfall is an acknowledged driver of the abundance and distribution of larger animals, little is known about how invertebrate communities respond to rain events or to vegetative productivity. Here we investigate Ordinal-level patterns and drivers of ground-dwelling invertebrate abundance across 6 years of sampling in the Simpson Desert, central Australia. Between February 1999 and February 2005, a total of 174 381 invertebrates were sampled from 32 Orders. Ants were the most abundant taxon, comprising 83% of all invertebrates captured, while Collembola at 10.3% of total captures were a distant second over this period. Temporal patterns of the six invertebrate taxa specifically analysed (Acarina, ants, Araneae, Coleoptera, Collembola and Thysanura) were dynamic over the sampling period, and patterns of abundance were taxon-specific. Analyses indicate that all six taxa showed a positive relationship with the cover of non-Triodia vegetation. Other indicators of vegetative productivity (seeding and flowering) also showed positive relationships with certain taxa. Although the influence of rainfall was taxon-dependent, no taxon was affected by short-term rainfall (up to 18 days prior to survey). The abundance of Acarina, ants, and Coleoptera increased with greater long-term rainfall (up to 18 months prior to survey), whilst Araneae showed the opposite effect. Temperature and dune zone (dune crest vs. swale) also had taxon-specific effects. These results show that invertebrates in arid ecosystems are influenced by a variety of abiotic factors, at multiple scales, and that responses to rainfall are not as strong or as predictable as those seen for other taxa. Our results highlight the diversity of invertebrates in our study region and emphasize the need for targeted long-term sampling to enhance our understanding of the ecology of these taxa and the role they play in arid ecosystems.
Aquatic invertebrate assemblages of wetlands and rivers in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia
A biological survey of wetlands in the Wheatbelt and adjacent coastal areas of south-west Western Australia was undertaken to document the extent and distribution of the region's aquatic invertebrate diversity. Two hundred and thirty samples were collected from 223 wetlands, including freshwater swamps and lakes, salinised wetlands, springs, rivers, artificial wetlands (farm dams and small reservoirs), saline playas and coastal salt lakes between 1997 and 2000. The number of aquatic invertebrates identified from the region has been increased five-fold to almost 1000 species, of which 10% are new and known to date only from the Wheatbelt, and another 7% (mostly rotifers and cladocerans) are recorded in Western Australia for the first time. The survey has provided further evidence of a significant radiation of microcrustaceans in south-west Western Australia. Comparison of the fauna with other regions suggests that saline playas and ephemeral pools on granite outcrop support most of the species likely to be restricted to the Wheatbelt. Most species were collected infrequently, but for many of the least common species the Wheatbelt is likely to be on the periphery of their range.