Northern Murray Mallee Landscape Restoration Trial Survey

Northern Murray Mallee Landscape Restoration Process Trial. Part of a larger project to trial a process (Willoughby 2006) where information and planning at relevant scales will be used to suggest appropriate on-ground works. Approximately 165-200 sites will be surveyed. Survey Area, 3 trial landscapes- initially suggested as: - Billiatt/Wanbi - variegated; - Mantung/Maggea - fragmented; and - Paruna/Pata - relictual. These landscapes include the range of landscape categories (McIntyre and Hobbs,2000): - Intact - < 10 % destroyed and/or low levels of modification; - Variegated - 10-40 % destroyed and/or low-high modification; - Fragmented - 40-90 % destroyed and/or low-high levels of modification - Relictual - > 90 % destroyed and/or mostly highly modified. Site Selection: Sites will be stratified against variables (native veg cover and type (floristics), landscape, soils) that may be used to model biota distn and predictive habitat modelling. Birds: At least 500 bird counts per 2 ha/20 min/site and 3 counts/site for estimates of detectability. Plants: Biological Survey of SA standard. Some Murray Mallee (BS16) sites to be revisited. This offers an opportunity toward establishing trends in condition. Also, as site condition information will be collected in conjunction with vegetation information at each site. Site condition: Landscape function analysis (LFA) will be assessed for all sites (Tongway and Hindley 2004). Survey started in 2005, and is still going. The Northern Murray Mallee Landscape Restoration Trial 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.