Using Acacia shrublands landscape change as an indicator of ecosystem health
Bowman, Boggs, Allan, Franklin, Nicholas
Monitoring landscape-scale ecological change is a basic requirement for sustainable land management. The combination of both the landscape and historical perspectives is a critical feedback mechanism in broad-scale ‘adaptive management’ programs, because together they permit both the impact and spatial extent of various land management interventions to be gauged. This project examines changes in mulga (Acacia anuera) and spinifex (Trioda sp.) distribution as a bio-indicator of landscape change over medium and long term time scales in central Australia. Previous research has demonstrated that the boundaries between other grassland and woody vegetation types change at a variety of time scales, although the exact cause of this dynamism is poorly understood and thought to include the effects of landscape setting, climatic, landscape fires, feral herbivore impacts and possibly even the effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 have been implicated. This project forms one part of the CRC for Desert Knowledge ‘Desert Fire’ project and is expected to be completed by early 2006.
