The document describes a system called VAST-2 for tracking changes in native vegetation condition in Australia over time due to human activities. It uses a standardized set of ecological criteria and indicators to assess vegetation at sites being transformed by land management practices compared to reference sites. A case study applies VAST-2 to track changes in sand dune vegetation before, during, and after sand mining. The system can help land managers and ecologists understand landscape transformation and has potential applications for monitoring outcomes of activities like environmental restoration.
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Tracking changes in Australia's plant communities
1. Transformation of Australia’s
vegetated landscapes
Richard Thackway
A system for tracking the anthropogenic changes in
the condition of Australia’s plant communities
2. Outline
• Concepts and definitions
• VAST-2 system
• Case study
• Influence /impacts
• Conclusions
3.
4.
5.
6. Aim:
To develop a standardised national system for
assessing changes in native vegetation condition
over time
9. Definitions - Condition and transformation
• Change in a plant community (type) due to effects of land
management practices:
• Structure
• Composition
• Regenerative capacity
• Resilience = the capacity of an plant community to recover
toward a reference state following a change/s in management
• Transformation = changes to vegetation condition over time
• Condition, resilience and transformation are assessed relative
to fully natural a reference state
Vegetation
condition
10. Land managers affect native veg condition
in space and over time
Process:
Land managers use land management practices (LMP) to
influence ecological function at sites and the landscape by:
• Modifying
• Removing and replacing
• Enhancing
• Restoring
• Maintaining
• Improving
Purpose/s:
To achieve the desired mix of ecosystem services (space & time)
11. Focus on tracking effects of land
management on key ecological criteria
Soil
Vegetation
1. Soil hydrological status
2. Soil physical status
3. Soil nutrient status
4. Soil biological status
5. Fire regime
6. Reproductive potential
7. Overstorey structure
8. Understorey structure
9. Overstorey composition
10. Understorey composition
12. Focus on tracking effects of land
management on key ecological criteria
Soil
Vegetation
Regenerative capacity/ function
1. Soil hydrological status
2. Soil physical status
3. Soil nutrient status
4. Soil biological status
5. Fire regime
6. Reproductive potential
7. Overstorey structure
8. Understorey structure
9. Overstorey composition
10. Understorey composition
13. Focus on tracking effects of land
management on key ecological criteria
Soil
Vegetation
Regenerative capacity/ function
Vegetation structure &
Species composition
1. Soil hydrological status
2. Soil physical status
3. Soil nutrient status
4. Soil biological status
5. Fire regime
6. Reproductive potential
7. Overstorey structure
8. Understorey structure
9. Overstorey composition
10. Understorey composition
14. Generate total indices for ‘transformation site’ for each year of the
historical record. Validate using Expert Knowledge
• Compile and collate effects of land
management on criteria (10) and
indicators (22) over time.
• Evaluate impacts on the plant
community over time
Transformation site
• Compile and collate data /
information on criteria (10)
and indicators (22).
Assumed steady state
Reference state/sites
Score all 22 indicators for ‘transformation site’ relative to the
‘reference site’. 0 = major change; 1 = no change
Derive weighted indices for the ‘transformation site’ i.e. regenerative
capacity (58%), vegetation structure (27%) and species composition (18%)
by adding predefined indicators
General process for tracking change
over time using the VAST-2 system
15. Condition
components (3)
[VAST]
VAST-2 Criteria
(10)
VAST-2 Indicators of vegetation and ecological processes
(22)
Regenerativecapacity Fire regime 1. Area /size of fire foot prints
2. Number of fire starts
Soil hydrology 3. Soil surface water availability
4. Ground water availability
Soil physical
state
5. Depth of the A horizon
6. Soil structure
Soil nutrient
state
7. Nutrient stress – rundown (deficiency) relative to soil fertility
8. Nutrient stress – excess (toxicity) relative to soil fertility
Soil biological
state
9. Recyclers responsible for maintaining soil porosity and nutrient recycling
10. Surface organic matter, soil crusts
Reproductive
potential
11. Reproductive potential of overstorey structuring species
12. Reproductive potential of understorey structuring species
Vegetation
structure
Overstorey
structure
13. Overstorey top height (mean) of the plant community
14. Overstorey foliage projective cover (mean) of the plant community
15. Overstorey structural diversity (i.e. a diversity of age classes) of the stand
Understorey
structure
16. Understorey top height (mean) of the plant community
17. Understorey ground cover (mean) of the plant community
18. Understorey structural diversity (i.e. a diversity of age classes) of the plant
Species
Composition
Overstorey
composition
19. Densities of overstorey species functional groups
20. Relative number of overstorey species (richness) of indigenous :exotic spp
Understorey
composition
21. Densities of understorey species functional groups
22. Relative number of understorey species (richness) of indigenous :exotic spp
27. Bridge Hill Ridge, 2011
Case study site - Field visit January 2014
Smiths Lake
28. VAST-2 key ecological criteria
& indicators
Reference
state
Transformation
site
Fire regime * *
Soil hydrology * *
Soil physical state * **
Soil nutrient state ** *
Soil biological state * *
Reproductive potential *** ***
Overstorey vegetation structure *** **
Understorey vegetation structure *** ***
Overstorey species composition *** ***
Understorey species composition *** ***
Populating the VAST-2 criteria
*** Quantitative data /info * Qualitative data /info
29. Importance of dynamics
Rainfall is assumed to be main driver of system dynamics
• Period 1900 - 2013
• Average seasonal rainfall (summer, autumn, …)
• Rainfall anomaly is calculated above and below the mean
• Two year running trend line fitted
NB: Must calibrate remote sensing to account for rainfall
dynamics, e.g. ground cover, greenness and foliage projective
cover
37. Conclusions
• Method has been successfully applied in selected
tropical, arid and temperate plant communities
• VAST-2 has value for:
• Synthesizing information (quantitative and qualitative)
• Engaging land managers and ecologists as equal players
• Useful as an accounting tool for tracking change in the
condition of vegetated landscapes
• Report card helps ‘tell the story’ of landscape
transformation
• Investigations of scaling-up the method to a landscape level
are promising
38. More info & Acknowledgements
More information
http://portal.tern.org.au/search
http://aceas-data.science.uq.edu.au/portal/
http://www.vasttransformations.com/
Acknowledgements
• University of Queensland, Department of Geography Planning and
Environmental Management for ongoing research support
• Many public and private land managers, land management
agencies, consultants and researchers have assisted in the development of VAST
& VAST-2
Hinweis der Redaktion
50 to 80 years, or, perhaps 100 years from the time restoration commenced 202420542074