Ecological Survey - Terania Creek Basin - Report Writing - Environment Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Aim

This exercise aims to illustrate the type of work necessary to elucidate the ecology of vegetation across the landscape at moderate scales (say, km scale).

Terania Creek Basin

The exercise concerns the vegetation found in the Terania Creek Basin, which is located about 25 km north of Lismore in the Whian Whian State Forest in subtropical north eastern NSW. The diagram below comes from Turner,J. 1984. Radiocarbon dating of wood and charcoal in an Australian forest ecosystem. Australian Forestry 47, 79-83. Itshows, generally, how the vegetation in the basin changes from dry sclerophyll forest at the top of the basin slope, grading to wet sclerophyll forest further down the slope to subtropical rainforest near the bottom of the slope, along the creek edge.

Ecological survey

Some years ago, ecologists undertook a survey of the vegetation in a 900 ha area of the vegetation of the Terania Creek Basin. They established a 250 m × 250 m square grid, with a total of 144 plots located at the intersection points on the grid. At each point, they determined the presence or absence, within 20 m of the point, of each of 16 species (mostly tree species), species which they considered to be the important, dominant species which occur in the vegetation. The table below lists the 16 species, together with the type(s) of forest within which each normally occurs.

Abstract

A soil survey in mixed rain and sclerophyll forest on the North Coast of New South Wales was carried out to determine the role of soil nutrients in delineating forest type. Subtropical rain forest grew on the soils highest in mineral nutrients, while palm forest (Archontophoenix spp.), brushbox (Tristania conferta) and blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) were on nutritionally poorer soils. The moisture regime appeared critical in delineating these forest types with palm on poorly drained sites and blackbutt on more exposed, drier situations. Flooded-gum (E. grandis) was found as an overstorey over well-developed subtropical rain forest and the soils were not nutritionally distinguishable from rain forest. The presence of charcoal indicated these types of rain forest had been disturbed by fire. Coachwood (Ceratopetalum apetalum) occurred in patches on nutritionally poor soils and the effect of thisspecies, which accumulates aluminium, on soil properties is discussed.

Introduction

East coast Australian forest vegetation is a mosaic resulting from a series of interacting factors (Florence 1963). While these can be broadly defined (e.g. soil chemical or physical factors, biology and frequency of fire,) the dominant factors vary with the site and the scale at which the study is undertaken. The depauperate nature of many Australian forest soils and the development of differing species requirements (McColl and Humphreys 1967; Florence 1979) often lead to vegetation being delineated by soil nutrient status (Baur 1957; Richards 1968; Webb 1969; Turner et al. 1978). On broad-scale surveys encompassing various climatic types, soil nutrients have been found to delineate both rain forest and various sclerophyllous forest communities (Baur 1957; Webb 1969). On a smaller scale other factors interact with the nutrient regime. Thus, while soil nutrients were important in delineating the distribution of the forest communities in the Eden area, topographical features also played a significant role (Turner et al. 1978).

The aim of the study was primarily to determine whether the defined forest associations were found on soils with specific characteristics. Soil chemical elements were used as the major delineators because, although relationships between vegetation and soil morphology often existed, they were not always recognizable (or present). This paper discusses relationships between vegetation and soils in a small basin on the north coast of N.S.W. The area has been a focus of interest owing to demands for limited logging. This paper, however, addresses itself to some specific ecological aspects only.

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