| Survey/Project Number: | 998 Total No. of Sites: 131 |
| Survey/Project Name: | Threatened Mallee Bird Recovery Program |
| Abstract: | The Threatened Mallee Bird Recovery program was established to address an identified need to manage remnant mallee vegetation in a way that provides for the recovery of threatened birds within the Murray-Darling Basin region of South Australia. This recovery program focuses on four threatened birds within the mallee of South Australia; the Nationally-listed (vulnerable, EPBC Act 1999) Mallee Emuwren, Red-lored Whistler and Western Whipbird, plus the State-listed (vulnerable) Striated Grasswren. Within this area all four species are restricted to the mallee, and in most areas each species coexists with these, and other threatened and near threatened mallee birds. There is very limited knowledge of the ecology of these four species within the mallee system, and their distribution is currently poorly known. |
| Start Date: | 01/07/2005 End Date: 31/07/2008 |
| Survey Type: | Fauna only |
| Study Area Description: | Bookmark region (Danggali, Cooltong) |
| Objectives | |||
| Vegetation: | *** No vegetation survey objectives recorded | ||
| Fauna: | Refer to Abstract. | ||
| Methodology | |||
| Vegetation: | *** No vegetation methodology recorded | ||
| Fauna: | Development of a monitoring program for declining Mallee birds One of the essential requirements of effective management is a monitoring program that can detect changes in the conservation targets due to either threats of management implemented to mitigate threats. This project is designed to establish a regional monitoring program for Mallee birds. It will consist of a number of different components including: 1. A community-based surveillance project that will be able to detect changes in species occupancy or area of extent, allowing for management to respond to negative changes. 2. Specific species monitoring programs for the highest priority threatened species. These will monitor both general population changes and specific changes related to implemented management actions. The initial work will involve trialling different sized area searches (2 ha and 5 ha), plus comparing the reliability of occupancy estimates with different numbers of repeat surveys (3-6 repeats will be compared). Some of this will be done in collaboration with community groups and some as part of work being done on threatened species. Grazing Trial for declining Mallee birds An initial trial study covering 71 survey points within two sites that differ in their grazing regimes has identified species that have different occupancy rates in the sites. Currently this work lacks data on vegetation and other site characteristics that would allow for the mechanisms of these occupancy changes to be determined. This project will collect and analyse this data with the intention of developing a more detailed study of grazing in the future. Transect-based quadrate surveys of vegetation structure and composition, plus information on soil cryptogram, the litter layer and soil disturbance will be collected at each of the bird survey points. Two transects each containing five 10 m x 10 m quadrats will be used. | ||
| Data Distribution Rules: | Public Dataset |
| Project Basis: |
Fauna
:
EPBC/NPWSA Threatened species targeted survey. Flora or fauna species.
Fauna : Monitoring - Fauna/Ecosystem (ie species records - usually re-visited for ongoing monitoring) NOTE:NON Std Svy methodology may have been used. |
| Information Authority: | Department for Environment and Heritage (BDBSA:Misc) - Regional Conservation |