Incorporating biodiversity monitoring into rangeland condition assessment

This project explored the extent to which widely used measures of rangeland condition can also serve as surrogates for biodiversity status. Where currently used indicators proved inadequate, new indicators may be developed for use in monitoring critical or sensitive components of biodiversity.

Biodiversity attributes and measures of land condition were sampled at sites ranging in condition, in three representative rangeland regions of northern Australia. The project validated mechanisms for biodiversity monitoring within rangelands, an important tool for improving adaptive management and ecological sustainable use of the rangelands.

For related information access the website for the Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts.

Outcomes

1. To establish the value of widely-used measures of landscape health or pasture condition as surrogates for trends in biodiversity in northern rangelands, and determine which measures are most predictive for which components of biodiversity;
2. To provide a framework and methodology for monitoring biodiversity in the northern rangelands, so that consideration of biodiversity condition can be incorporated into assessments of landscape health and ecological sustainability (at enterprise and regional scales);
3. To establish which components of biodiversity, particularly at a species and functional group level, are most susceptible to  deterioration in landscape condition;
4. To provide management decision support systems for the retention of biodiversity in Australia’s northern rangelands

Publications and Resources

None listed

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2009. Incorporating biodiversity monitoring into rangeland condition assessment. [Online] (Updated April 24th, 2009)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3296 [Accessed Tuesday 26th of April 2011 01:56:57 AM ].