Gawler Craton (including adjacent Maralinga Lands) Survey

The main aim of this survey was to collect data on the vegetation communities of the Gawler Craton Region to enable the classification & mapping of the floristic composition and structure of the vegetation groups of the area. Sites were selected to sample the range of vegetation associations and landform types occurring throughout the sudy area. The initial 2005 survey encompassed the Yellabinna Regional Reserve and part of the Maralinga Tjarutja Aboriginal Lands. Vegetation was documented with a complete list of plant species within a 100 x 100m quadrat using Braun-Blanquet cover abundance scores. Lifeform and reproductive stage, and site physical data was also recorded. Each site was assigned a structural formation. Rapid assessment sites or veg mapping sites (VMS) will be used extensively throughout this project. A modified standard Biological Survey methodology, Vegetation Mapping methodology, was used during this project at sites identified by the label prefix 'VMS'. At Vegetation Mapping Sites the dominant overstorey and understorey plant species and perennial plant species with a Braun-Blanquet cover abundance score greater than 1 were recorded. Plant height data were not recorded. Either a subset of the complete physical dataset (such as slope, aspect and landform) or no physical data were recorded. The Gawler Craton (including adjacent Maralinga Lands) Survey is part of the Biological Survey of South Australia Program which is a series of systematic surveys conducted across the state between 1971 and the present with the broad aim of providing a baseline inventory of South Australia's flora and fauna biodiversity.