The University of Adelaide - Rabbit Activity Monitoring and Control, Koonamore Vegetation Monitoring Project

The TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve (or Koonamore Vegetation Reserve (KVR)) is a protected area on Koonamore Station which has been fenced off from grazing since the mid 1920's. In 1925, Professor Theodore George Bentley (TGB) Osborn and his colleagues established a vegetation reserve by fencing off 400 ha of a badly overgrazed portion of the Koonamore station to study the process of recovery of vegetation in the arid zone of South Australia after the removal of grazing pressure. The fence was established to initially keep sheep and later also rabbits from the reserve and allow vegetation regeneration. The resulting long-term vegetation monitoring project at Koonamore is now over 80 years old, making it one of the longest-running monitoring series of its type in the world.; Reserve History: In the mid 1920's Professor TGB Osborn and his colleagues extended their interests in ecology and field physiology of vegetation to the arid zone of South Australia. In 1892 Dixon had warned the Royal Society of South Australia of serious degradation of the soils and vegetation resulting from pastoralism and other alien influences in the region. Equally important to the origin of KVR was the new theory of vegetation succession derived from North American work early in the century. Osborn was particularly concerned with the question as to whether overgrazing by domestic and feral herbivores would result in return of the original vegetation via recognisable 'seral' stages, or whether the changes were ?artificial, mere destructions and as such outside the ecologist's proper field?. Although the concepts of 'succession' and the scope of ecology have developed and changed much since that time, nevertheless it was interest in 'succession to climax' that gave the initial impetus to KVR and many other long-term vegetation studies from that time. The theory of vegetation succession gave rise to the permanent charted quadrat as a technique for observing vegetation change. An extensive series of permanent quadrats was set up on KVR and supplemented by a series of fixed photopoints, in order to pursue the first aim. Although some of these were allowed to lapse within five years, many others were sampled more or less regularly, some almost annually up to the present. Several early publications reviewing the progress of vegetation change resulted. Nothing was done towards the second aim but autecological and population dynamics studies are still being carried out, based on KVR and its records. The Bibliography contains a complete listing of research publications arising from work done on the Reserve. Much of the continuity of the earlier records is due to the efforts of Miss Constance Eardley, who while a lecturer in the Department of Botany, organised annual visits of students and staff to take records and maintain KVR. However, after 1950 the rate of sampling had begun to decline and in the mid 1960's ceased altogether for a period of several years. In the 1970's Dr Russell Sinclair reactivated the recording programme and also began a sustained effort at rabbit control. Although the Reserve was originally fenced with rabbit-proof netting, the rabbits were never eradicated and the population has fluctuated greatly with the seasons. Beginning in 1975, numbers have been kept very low by careful annual inspection and control. Since that time there has been marked seedling establishment of several tree and shrub species which showed little previous regeneration. The Reserve records now contain a history of the vegetation over 50 years without sheep grazing followed by over 30 years without significant grazing by either sheep or rabbits. Kangaroos and emus have never been excluded from the Reserve, as they can jump the fence, and their numbers vary with the seasons. The monitoring work at KVR and the curation of its records is continuing under the direction of Dr Sinclair. The Reserve is also used for post-graduate study and complements the arid-zone research interests of Environmental Biology at the Middleback Field Sation near Whyalla.; Site Description: The Reserve is located in the centre of Koonamore Station, a sheep-grazing lease 400 km north-east of Adelaide, South Australia (Lat. 32º07'S, Long. 139º20'E) in predominantly chenopod shrubland with mean annual rainfall of about 200mm. The area consists of a complex of low sand dunes alternating with sand plain and harder loam soils with travertine limestone on the intervening flats. The tree cover is a low open woodland formation. The sand dunes carry Acacia aneura (mulga), A. burkittii and Eremophila spp., the sand plain a dense stand of Casuarina pauper (blackoak, belah), and the harder loam soils a mixed community of Myoporum platycarpum (false sandalwood) and Alectryon oleifolius (bullock bush, rosewood). Understorey shrubs, which also form low chenopod shrubland communities in some areas, include Atriplex vesicaria (bladder saltbush), A. stipitata and Maireana sedifolia (bluebush). Numerous other chenopodiaceous shrubs also occur, and grass and ephemeral herb cover varies with the seasons. Several species of Senna, Eremophila and other shrubs also occur.; Monitoring activities: Some or all of the following monitoring activities are carried out during visits to the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve: Vegetation Quadrats, Photopoints, Senna Quadrat (Cassia Corner), Myoporum platycarpum Plants, Saltbush Transects, Senna Populations, Kangaroo Transects, Rabbit Activity Monitoring and Control.; Rabbit Activity Monitoring and Control: For each visit to the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, a group of 3 or 4 observers walk the whole reserve in strips, identifying rabbit warrens. Each encountered warren is marked on a reserve map, fumigated and filled in. A rabbit warren count for each monitored quadrat along the strips as well as the total number is recorded.

TGB奥斯本植被保护区（又称库纳莫尔植被保护区（KVR））是库纳莫尔牧场内的一处保护区，自20世纪20年代中期起便被围栏隔离以禁止放牧。1925年，西奥多·乔治·本特利·奥斯本（TGB Osborn）教授及其同事通过围栏隔离库纳莫尔牧场中400公顷严重过度放牧的区域，建立了这座植被保护区，旨在研究南澳大利亚干旱区移除放牧压力后植被的恢复过程。该围栏最初用于阻止绵羊进入保护区，后续也增设了防兔功能，以促进植被的自然更新。库纳莫尔由此开展的长期植被监测项目至今已逾80年，是全球同类持续时间最长的监测序列之一。

保护区历史：
20世纪20年代中期，TGB奥斯本教授及其团队将其在植被生态学与野外生理学领域的研究兴趣拓展至南澳大利亚干旱区。1892年，迪克森曾向南澳大利亚皇家学会警示，该区域的畜牧业与其他外来人为活动已导致土壤与植被出现严重退化。对KVR的创立同样至关重要的是本世纪早期源自北美研究的植被演替（vegetation succession）理论。奥斯本尤为关注一个核心问题：家养与野生草食动物的过度放牧，是否会让原生植被通过可识别的“演替阶段（seral stages）”得以恢复？抑或这些变化只是“人为的单纯破坏”，完全超出了生态学研究的范畴？尽管自彼时起，“演替”的概念与生态学的研究范畴已发生诸多演变，但正是对“顶极演替（succession to climax）”的研究兴趣，为KVR以及同期诸多其他长期植被研究项目提供了最初的动力。植被演替理论催生了永久性标注样方（permanent charted quadrat）这一观测植被变化的研究方法。为达成这一首要研究目标，KVR内布设了大量永久性样方，并辅以一系列固定摄影样点（fixed photopoints）。尽管其中部分样点与摄影点在五年内便停止了观测，但其余多数均得到了或多或少的定期采样，部分样点甚至几乎每年都进行监测，直至今日。相关团队先后发表了多篇综述植被变化进程的早期研究论文。针对第二项研究目标的工作尚未开展，但基于KVR及其观测记录的个体生态学（autecological）与种群动态（population dynamics）研究至今仍在进行。本参考文献列表完整收录了所有基于该保护区开展的研究论文。早期观测记录得以延续，很大程度上归功于康斯坦斯·厄德利女士的付出：她时任植物学系讲师，每年都会组织学生与教职工前往保护区开展记录工作并维护KVR的监测体系。但1950年后，采样频率开始下降，至20世纪60年代中期更是完全中断了数年时间。20世纪70年代，拉塞尔·辛克莱博士重新启动了观测记录项目，并开始持续开展兔害防控工作。尽管保护区最初安装了防兔网，但野兔始终未能被彻底根除，其种群数量随季节波动剧烈。自1975年起，通过每年细致的巡查与防控，野兔种群数量被维持在极低水平。自此之后，多种此前几乎未见自然更新的乔木与灌木物种出现了显著的幼苗定植现象。保护区的观测记录如今涵盖了两段时期的植被历史：前50年无绵羊放牧，后续30余年则未受到绵羊或野兔的显著放牧影响。袋鼠与鸸鹋从未被隔离在保护区外，因为它们能够跳跃围栏，其种群数量同样随季节波动。目前，在辛克莱博士的指导下，KVR的监测工作与观测记录的管理保存工作仍在持续推进。该保护区同时也用于研究生教学研究，可补充怀阿拉附近的米德巴克野外站（Middleback Field Station）环境生物学方向的干旱区研究工作。

样地概况：
保护区坐落于库纳莫尔牧场的中心区域，该牧场是一处绵羊放牧租赁地，位于南澳大利亚州阿德莱德东北400公里处（地理坐标：南纬32°07′，东经139°20′），区域内以藜科灌丛（chenopod shrubland）为主，年平均降水量约为200毫米。该区域由低矮沙丘、沙平原与较硬壤土交错组成，其间的平地分布有钙积石灰岩（travertine limestone）。区域内的乔木层为低矮疏林结构。沙丘上分布有多节棘皮相思（Acacia aneura，又名穆尔加木mulga）、伯基特相思（A. burkittii）以及沙棘叶属（Eremophila）物种；沙平原上则密集生长着贫木麻黄（Casuarina pauper，又名黑橡blackoak、贝拉木belah）；较硬的壤土区域则分布有宽果肉果木（Myoporum platycarpum，又名假檀香false sandalwood）与澳叶枫（Alectryon oleifolius，又名牛轭木bullock bush、红木rosewood）组成的混合群落。林下灌木在部分区域也形成了低矮藜科灌丛群落，包括泡状滨藜（Atriplex vesicaria，又名膀胱盐肤木bladder saltbush）、具柄滨藜（A. stipitata）以及银叶菊（Maireana sedifolia，又名蓝灌木bluebush）。区域内还分布有诸多其他藜科灌木，草本与短命草本植物的覆盖度随季节变化明显。此外还分布有决明属（Senna）、沙棘叶属（Eremophila）等多个属的灌木物种。

监测活动：
在造访TGB奥斯本植被保护区期间，工作人员会开展以下部分或全部监测活动：植被样方监测、摄影样点监测、决明属样方（Cassia Corner，又称决明角）监测、宽果肉果木植株监测、滨藜样带监测、决明属种群监测、袋鼠样带监测以及野兔活动监测与防控。

野兔活动监测与防控：
每次造访TGB奥斯本植被保护区时，由3至4名观测者组成的小组会以条带式路线遍历整个保护区，识别野兔洞穴。每发现一处野兔洞穴，观测者都会在保护区地图上标记其位置，随后进行熏蒸并填埋洞穴。研究人员会记录条带沿线每个监测样方的野兔洞穴数量，以及洞穴总数。