Quality assessment manual for native vegetation in the Northern Territory of Australia: A: Vegetation condition assessment 1. Top End forests and woodlands
Details:
Title
Quality assessment manual for native vegetation in the Northern Territory of Australia: A: Vegetation condition assessment 1. Top End forests and woodlands,
Creator
Price, Owen,
Brocklehurst, Peter,
Northern Territory. Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport,
Preface: The extent and condition of native vegetation is a fundamental attribute describing healthy ecosystems: all species depend on vegetation for habitat and food sources. There is a growing demand for vegetation condition information at local, regional and national levels for habitat health indicators as well as for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Condition information is also required for a variety of national and state legislative acts and regulations as well as for various protocols such as state of the environment reporting. A study was undertaken to develop a set of measurable, on ground condition attributes which can be used to assess the current condition of NT native vegetation. These attributes are specifically designed to assess condition in terms of bio-diversity. This report outlines the approach taken for Top End forests and woodlands. It includes background material, condition attributes, assessment methodology and criteria scoring tables. This is a draft document. Further work is required on the document particularly for section 3 which needs expanding to include figures and clearer explanation of techniques. A proper field manual is to be prepared.,
Notes
Cover title.,
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT),
Table of contents
1. Introduction -- 1.1 Rationale -- 1.1.1 NT requirements -- 1.1.2 National requirements -- 2. Background information -- 2.1 Context 2.2 Overview -- 2.2.1 Vegetation Condition Attributes -- 2.2.2 Benchmark vegetation types -- 2.2.3 Spatial extrapolation of condition classes -- 3. Field Assessment Methodology -- 3.1 Transects -- 3.2 Basal wedge -- 3.3 Plot based measurements -- 4. GIS/Spatial Assessment: Landscape metrics -- 5. Condition Attribute Tables: Scoring -- 5.1 Field Assessment -- 5.1.1 Tree component -- 5.1.2 Ground component -- 5.2 Landscape Metrics -- 5.2.1 Fire -- 5.2.2 Fragmentation -- 5.2.3 Habitat Complexity -- 5.3 Summarising Condition Score -- 6. Future Work -- 7. Acknowledgements -- 8. Bibliography -- Appendix 1: Condition Attribute Table -- Appendix 2: Tree Proforma -- Appendix 3: Transect proforma -- Appendix 4: Example of scoring -- Appendix 5: Foliage Health Guide.,