Myoporum platycarpum survey, Koonamore Vegetation Monitoring Project (1925-present)

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.; Myoporum platycarpum: A group of Myoporum platycarpum plants, located in and outside of the vegetation quadrats, have been measured and monitored in the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve since they were identified in 1962. Please use the following URL to access the dataset: http://aekos.org.au/collection/adelaide.edu.au/Koonamore/MyoporumIndividualsTGB奥斯本植被保护区（TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve，又名库纳莫尔植被保护区Koonamore Vegetation Reserve，缩写KVR）是位于库纳莫尔牧场的保护区，自20世纪20年代中期起便被围禁放牧。1925年，西奥多·乔治·本特利·奥斯本（TGB）教授及其同事将库纳莫尔牧场内一片严重过度放牧的400公顷区域围设为植被保护区，旨在研究南澳大利亚州干旱区移除放牧压力后的植被恢复过程。该围栏最初用于阻隔绵羊进入保护区，后续也用于防范野兔，以促进植被自然恢复。库纳莫尔地区的长期植被监测项目至今已有八十余年历史，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植被生态学与野外生理学的研究方向拓展至南澳大利亚州干旱区。1892年，迪克森曾向南澳大利亚皇家学会预警，该区域因畜牧活动及其他外来人为干扰导致土壤与植被出现严重退化。与KVR创立同样关键的是本世纪早期源自北美研究提出的植被演替新理论。奥斯本尤为关注的核心问题是：家畜与野生植食动物的过度放牧，是否会通过可识别的“演替系列（seral）”阶段恢复原生植被，抑或这些变化仅为人为破坏，因此超出了生态学研究的合理范畴？尽管此后“演替”概念与生态学研究范畴均发生了诸多演变，但正是对“顶级群落演替”的研究兴趣，催生了KVR乃至同期诸多长期植被研究项目。植被演替理论推动了永久性标注定样地（permanent charted quadrat）作为植被变化观测技术的应用。为达成首要研究目标，KVR内布设了大量永久性样地，并辅以固定摄影监测点（fixed photopoints）。尽管部分样地在五年内便停止了监测，但其余多数样地均得到了或多或少的定期采样，部分样地几乎每年都会开展监测，直至今日。相关团队已发表多篇综述植被变化进程的早期研究论文。针对第二个研究目标的工作尚未开展，但基于KVR及其监测记录的种群生态学与种群动态研究至今仍在进行。本参考文献列表完整收录了基于该保护区研究产出的所有学术出版物。早期监测记录的连续性很大程度上得益于康斯坦斯·伊德利女士的努力：她时任植物学系讲师期间，组织师生每年到访保护区开展记录与维护工作。不过1950年后，采样频率开始下降，20世纪60年代中期甚至完全中断了数年。20世纪70年代，拉塞尔·辛克莱博士重新启动了监测记录计划，并开始持续开展兔害防控工作。尽管保护区最初使用了防兔网围栏，但野兔始终未能被彻底根除，其种群数量随季节大幅波动。1975年起，通过每年细致的巡查与防控，野兔种群被维持在极低水平。自此之后，多种此前几乎无自然更新的乔木与灌木物种出现了显著的幼苗定植现象。目前保护区的监测记录涵盖了50余年无绵羊放牧、以及其后30余年无绵羊或野兔显著放牧的植被历史。袋鼠与鸸鹋从未被排除在保护区外，因其可跳跃翻越围栏，其种群数量同样随季节变化。KVR的监测工作与记录管理目前仍在辛克莱博士的指导下持续开展。该保护区同时也用于研究生教学与研究，并补充了位于怀阿拉附近的米德巴克野外站（Middleback Field Station）的干旱区环境生物学研究方向。 样地概况：该保护区坐落于库纳莫尔牧场核心区域，该牧场为南澳大利亚州阿德莱德东北400公里处的绵羊放牧租赁用地，地理坐标为南纬32°07′、东经139°20′，区域植被以藜科灌丛为主，年均降水量约200毫米。该区域由低矮沙丘、砂质平原与紧实壤土交替构成，相间洼地分布有钙华石灰岩。乔木覆盖为低矮疏林群落：沙丘上生长着卷叶相思树（Acacia aneura，又称穆尔加木）、伯基特相思树以及喜沙木属（Eremophila spp.）物种；砂质平原上为密集的贫木麻黄（Casuarina pauper，又称黑橡、贝拉哈木）群落；紧实壤土区域则为肉果草（Myoporum platycarpum，又称假檀香木）与异叶电叶木（Alectryon oleifolius，又称公牛灌木、玫瑰木）的混合群落。林下灌木在部分区域同样形成低矮藜科灌丛群落，包括膀胱滨藜（Atriplex vesicaria，又称膀胱盐肤木）、柄花滨藜以及蓝蒿（Maireana sedifolia，又称蓝灌丛）。此外还分布有多种其他藜科灌木，草本与一年生草本覆盖度随季节变化。番泻决明属（Senna）、喜沙木属（Eremophila）及其他灌木物种也有分布。 监测活动：在到访TGB奥斯本植被保护区期间，会开展以下部分或全部监测活动：植被样地监测、固定摄影点监测、番泻决明属样地（番泻决明角，Cassia Corner）监测、肉果草植株监测、滨藜样带监测、番泻决明种群监测、袋鼠样带监测、野兔活动监测与防控。 肉果草监测：自1962年被首次识别以来，TGB奥斯本植被保护区内及植被样地周边的多株肉果草（Myoporum platycarpum）已得到持续测量与监测。可通过以下URL获取该数据集：http://aekos.org.au/collection/adelaide.edu.au/Koonamore/MyoporumIndividuals