Landscape level thresholds for conservation of biodiversity in rural environments

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2009. Landscape level thresholds for conservation of biodiversity in rural environments. [Online] (Updated April 24th, 2009)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3302 [Accessed Friday 19th of March 2010 01:31:51 AM ].

The project aimed to understand the requirements of plant and animal species communities and their landscape level requirements by examining the relationship between measures of biodiversity and native vegetation cover and pattern.

The project tested whether there are critical thresholds in native vegetation cover and pattern below which there is a disproportionate loss of biodiversity.

Outcomes

To measure indicators of biodiversity in landscapes that have different levels of vegetation cover (from less than 2 percent to greater than 50 percent) and vegetation pattern (clumped versus dispersed vegetation);
To test the idea of ecological thresholds of landscape cover and pattern below which there is disproportionately rapid decline in
species, faunal groups or ecological processes;
To describe the relationship between the fauna and landscape pattern, and examine the extent to which landscape thresholds differ among different species’ groups and ecological processes;
To propose levels of vegetation cover for the maintenance and conservation of biodiversity at a landscape scale;