Nanangroe Plantation Plot Network: Herpetofauna Survey, Southwest Slopes, NSW, Australia, 2015

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. Sightings of exotic species (e.g. rats) are also recorded. 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

本数据集针对两栖爬行动物区系（Herpetofauna），每两年通过人工基质法与主动搜寻法开展调查。人工基质的布设标准为：每个样地设置8块标准屋面瓦、8块半尺寸（裁切型）铁路枕木以及4张波纹铁板。在永久200米样线的0米与100米点位周围，分别布设一组叠放的两张波纹铁板、4块半尺寸铁路枕木与4块屋面瓦。工作人员会轻柔翻开这些人工基质以记录其上栖息的动物，对部分个体进行徒手捕捉以鉴定物种，随后将基质复位，并将捕获的动物小心放回基质下方。主动搜寻环节则为：在200米样线沿线的点位上，耗时20分钟轻柔翻查各类石块、原木与掉落的树皮。若条件允许，还会记录包括性别、年龄与尾部状态在内的多项观测指标。外来物种（如鼠类）的目击记录也会被一并收录。

纳南格罗（Nanangroe）研究的核心目标，是直接量化当周边景观基质从半开垦放牧景观转变为以外来软木人工林为主的景观时，林地脊椎动物群落的变化及其与生境变量之间的关联（参考文献：Lindenmayer DB, Cunningham RB, MacGregor C, Tribolet C & Donnelly CF, 2001，《林地残存物中动物的景观基质效应前瞻性纵向研究：实验设计与基线数据》，《生物保护》，第101卷第2期，第160页）。

研究区域位于布里因杰克湖（Lake Burrinjuck）西侧的新南威尔士州（NSW）西南坡地，涵盖4处外来松类人工林（Pine Plantations，纳南格罗、科特韦、东邦贡戈与邦贡戈），以及毗邻这些人工林的私有地块。自1998年起，研究团队对所有样地的植被结构、覆盖度以及选定的脊椎动物类群开展重复采样，由此形成了长期观测数据集。

纳南格罗人工林样地网络完整计划所收集的相关数据集概要，可通过以下链接获取：http://www.ltern.org.au/index.php/ltern-plot-networks/nanangroe-plantation