Nanangroe Plantation Plot Network: Herpetofauna Survey, Southwest Slopes, NSW, Australia, 2013

Herpetofauna is surveyed every two years using artificial substrates and active search methods. Artificial substrates comprise eight standard roofing tiles, eight half-size (cut-off) railway sleepers and four sheets of corrugated iron per site. A set of two sheets of corrugated iron placed on top of one another, four half-size railways sleepers and four roofing tiles are placed around a point at the 0 m and 100 m point of the permanent 200 m transect. These artificial substrates are gently turned over to record occupants with some of the animals hand-captured to identify the species, substrates are replaced and then the animals put carefully back underneath the substrates. Active searching is done by gently turning over any rocks, logs or fallen bark at locations along a 200 m transect for 20 minites. Several measurements including sex, age and tail condition are recorded where possible.

The principle objective of the Nanangroe study is to directly quantify changes in woodland vertebrate assemblages and their relationships with habitat variables when the surrounding landscape matrix is converted from a semi-cleared grazing landscape to a landscape dominated by an exotic softwood plantation (Lindenmayer, DB, Cunningham, RB, MacGregor, C, Tribolet, C & Donnelly, CF 2001, ‘A prospective longitudinal study of landscape matrix effects on fauna in woodland remnants: experimental design and baseline data’, Biological Conservation, vol 101 no 2, p. 160).

The study area is located in the Southwest slopes of NSW west of Lake Burrinjuck and includes four exotic Pine Plantations (Nanangroe, Cotway, East Bungongo and Bungongo), as well as private properties adjacent those plantations. Repeated sampling of the vegetation structure and cover and selected vertebrate groups on all sites from 1998 has created a long term dataset.

A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Nanangroe Plantation Forest Plot Network’s full program is provided at http://www.ltern.org.au/index.php/ltern-plot-networks/nanangroe-plantation

两栖爬行动物群（Herpetofauna）每两年通过人工基质法和主动搜索法进行调查。每个调查点的人工基质包括8块标准屋顶瓦片、8块半尺寸（截断式）铁路枕木和4张波纹铁皮。在永久200米样带的0米和100米处，各放置一组人工基质：两张相互叠放的波纹铁皮、4块半尺寸铁路枕木和4块屋顶瓦片，围绕样带的对应点位布置。轻轻翻转这些人工基质以记录栖息生物，部分动物会被手工捕捉以鉴定物种；随后将基质复位，并小心地将动物放回基质下方。主动搜索则是在200米样带沿线的点位处，通过轻轻翻转岩石、原木或脱落树皮的方式进行，持续20分钟。在条件允许时，会记录包括性别、年龄和尾部状况在内的多项测量数据。

Nanangroe研究的核心目标是，当周边景观基质从半开垦的放牧景观转变为外来软木人工林主导的景观时，直接量化林地脊椎动物群落的变化及其与栖息地变量的关系（Lindenmayer, DB, Cunningham, RB, MacGregor, C, Tribolet, C & Donnelly, CF 2001，《林地残遗区景观基质对动物群的影响：实验设计与基线数据的前瞻性纵向研究》，《生物保护》，第101卷第2期，第160页）。

研究区域位于新南威尔士州（NSW）伯林贾克湖以西的西南坡地，涵盖4个外来松树人工林（Nanangroe、Cotway、East Bungongo和Bungongo）以及这些人工林周边的私人地块。自1998年起，对所有调查点的植被结构与覆盖度、选定脊椎动物类群进行重复采样，形成了长期数据集。

作为Nanangroe人工林样地网络完整项目的一部分，已收集的相关数据包概要可在以下链接获取：http://www.ltern.org.au/index.php/ltern-plot-networks/nanangroe-plantation