LTERN Data Portal

The study area is 10–20 km south-east of the town of Jugiong in southern NSW (Fig. 1), and it is bounded by the Murrumbidgee River to the north and the Bungongo State Forest, 5–8 km to the south and east. Annual precipitation across the study area ranges from 775 to 900 mm and is uniformly distributed throughout the year. Summers are typically hot. The name of the field study is taken from the Nanangroe Station — a large property where a major new radiata pine plantation has recently been established. The study region was chosen because:

(1) recent large-scale changes in landscape cover have occurred due to the establishment of new radiata pine plantations at four former grazing properties newly acquired by State Forests of NSW;

(2) long-term access to semi-cleared grazing properties which support numerous woodland remnants and which are located adjacent to the new Radiata Pine plantation has been obtained;

(3) the region contains a wide range of woodland vegetation types (see later). This will allow us to quantify the differences in fauna between different types of woodland. This makes our natural experiment different from many other studies that have focussed on one or only a few woodland types (e.g. Er, 1995; Prober and Thiele, 1995; Haddeon and Westbrooke, 1996; Arnold and Weeldenberg, 1998); and

(4) the woodland remnants in the study region vary in their physical condition, location (hilltops versus midslopes, etc.), and many other attributes (Table 1) making it possible to sample a broad range of environmental conditions and, in turn, model the relationships between species occurrence and these covariates.

The original vegetation cover in the study area included a suite of woodland vegetation types, particularly those dominated by yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora), red box (Eucalyptus polyanthemos), white box (Eucalyptus albens), red stringybark (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha), and Blakely’s red gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi). Much of the original cover has been cleared over the past 150 years, primarily for domestic stock grazing (Bungongo Centenary Committee, 1986). Only fragmented patches now remain of what was formerly continuous woodland vegetation cover.

Clearing operations to plant radiata pine in the areas surrounding the woodland remnants involves the felling and burning of isolated paddock trees and other shrubby vegetation. The cleared land is then deep-ripped with a bulldozer to create mounds of earth in which radiata pine seedlings are planted. These are standard plantation establishment procedures employed widely throughout south-eastern Australia.

[Lindenmayer, et al. 2001, A prospective longitudinal study of landscape matrix effects on fauna in woodland remnants: experimental design and baseline data. Biological Conservation 101: 157–169 [159–160]

The principle objective of the Nanangroe study is to directly quantify changes in woodland vertebrate assemblages and their relationships with habitat variables when the surrounding landscape matrix is converted from a semi-cleared grazing landscape to a landscape dominated by an exotic softwood plantation. Thus, the initial phase of the experiment is the establishment of a set of foundation sites. This involved characterizng all patches of remnant native vegetation on areas designated for pine plantation. Attributes of the 70 remnants included patch size (ha), dominant tree species, age and condition of overstorey trees, understorey condition, shape class, topographic position, and the density of trees within the patch. Patch sizes varied from 0.5 to 9.7 ha. Four broad vegetation classes were recognizd as part of field surveys. The species in these groups were:

(1) red box and red stringybark (co-dominant), apple box (Eucalyptus bridgesiana), long-leaf box (Eucalyptus goniocalyx), and broad-leaved peppermint (Eucalyptus dives);

(2) swamp gum (Eucalyptus camphora);

(3) yellow box, white box, red stringybark (co-dominant) and Blakely’s red gum; and

(4) river oak (Casuarina cunninghamiana).

[Lindenmayer, et al. 2001, A prospective longitudinal study of landscape matrix effects on fauna in woodland remnants: experimental design and baseline data. Biological Conservation 101: 157–169 [160]