scholarly journals Genetic data and climate niche suitability models highlight the vulnerability of a functionally important plant species from south‐eastern Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2014-2029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Miller ◽  
Craig Nitschke ◽  
Andrew R. Weeks ◽  
William L. Weatherly ◽  
Simon D. Heyes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Climate Niche ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
South Eastern Australia

Agricultural weeds and coastal saltmarsh in south-eastern Australia: an insurmountable problem?

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hurst ◽  
Paul I. Boon
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Coastal Wetlands ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Pasture Grass ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
South Eastern Australia

It is often assumed that saline coastal wetlands experience environmental conditions so severe that they are largely immune to invasion by exotic plant species. The belief is implicit in many older reviews of threats to mangroves and coastal saltmarshes, where a limited range of vascular plant taxa, often focussing on *Spartina, (throughout the paper an asterisk denotes an introduced (exotic) species as per Carr 2012) have been invoked as the major species of concern. Even though the weed flora of southern Australia is derived largely from agriculture and horticulture, neither of which includes many species tolerant of waterlogged, variably saline environments, a recent assessment of Victorian saline coastal wetlands indicated that exotic plants were the third-most pervasive threat, after land ‘reclamation’ and grazing. Tall wheat grass, *Lophopyrum ponticum (Podp.) A.Love., is one of the most severe and widely distributed weeds of saline coastal wetlands in south-eastern Australia. It is promoted by the agricultural extension arm of the Victorian government as a salt-tolerant pasture grass; however, its broad ecological amplitude and robust life form make it a most serious invader of upper saltmarsh in Victoria. We assessed the effectiveness of different control measures, including slashing and herbicides, for the management of *L. ponticum infestations (and their side effects on saltmarsh communities) in the Western Port region of Victoria. A nominally monocot-specific herbicide widely used to control *Spartina, Fluazifop-P, was ineffective in controlling *L. ponticum. The broad-spectrum systemic herbicide glyphosate was more effective in controlling *L. ponticum, but had undesirable impacts on native plant species. Controlling weeds in coastal wetlands using available herbicides for use near coastal waterways would seem to remain problematic.

The distribution and abundance of ground-dwelling mammals in relation to time since wildfire and vegetation structure in south-eastern Australia

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Catling ◽  
N. Coops ◽  
R. J. Burt
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Habitat Complexity ◽  
Stand Structure ◽  
Natural Succession ◽  
Faunal Composition ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Time Since Fire ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
South Eastern Australia

Vegetation undergoes a natural succession after wildfire. Following an initial flush of vegetation, when light and other resources become limiting, the stand structure rapidly reaches a maximum. As a result, vegetation structure does not form an even distribution over the landscape, but rather a patchwork pattern. The position and characteristics of a patch of habitat in the landscape may be critical in determining the faunal composition. In this paper a sequence of ‘habitat complexity scores’ (which describe vegetation structure independently of plant species) collected over 20 years following a wildfire was utilised to estimate vegetation structure in relation to time since fire. This information was compared with data collected over the same period on medium-sized and large grounddwelling mammals to examine the response of mammals to changes in vegetation structure. Models are presented of the response of ground-dwelling mammals to time since wildfire and to changes in habitat complexity scores, with predictions up to 25 years after wildfire.

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