The University of Adelaide - Kangaroo Transects, 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.; Kangaroo Transects: Many very young Senna seedlings were identified close to the Northern boundary of the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, both inside and outside of the reserve in 1997. To study the effects of grazing on these seedlings outside the reserve, three populations were identified and measured to the north of the fence, and a fourth population just south of the fence, i.e. on the reserve. Different fencing treatments were applied to the plants outside the reserve fence. One was protected from sheep, the second from both sheep and rabbits, the third left unprotected. The population inside the reserve was assumed to be protected from all grazing by the reserve fence. Plants were given numbers, marked on roofing nails in the ground beside the plant, and mapped on chart cards.

TGB奥斯本植被保护区（TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve，又称库纳莫尔植被保护区Koonamore Vegetation Reserve, KVR）是位于库纳莫尔牧场的封禁保护区域，自20世纪20年代中期起便禁止放牧。1925年，西奥多·乔治·本特利·奥斯本（Theodore George Bentley Osborn，简称TGB）教授及其同事将库纳莫尔牧场中400公顷严重过度放牧的区域围封，建立植被保护区，用以研究南澳大利亚干旱区移除放牧压力后植被的恢复过程。该围栏最初用于阻挡绵羊，后续也用于阻止野兔进入保护区，以促进植被自然更新。如今库纳莫尔的长期植被监测项目已持续超过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奥斯本教授及其同事将其在植被生态学与野外生理生态学领域的研究兴趣拓展至南澳大利亚干旱区。早在1892年，迪克森便已向南澳大利亚皇家学会警示该区域因畜牧活动及其他外来干扰导致的土壤与植被严重退化。与库纳莫尔植被保护区（KVR）起源同等重要的，是本世纪早期源自北美研究提出的植被演替新理论。奥斯本尤为关注一个核心问题：家养与野生植食动物的过度放牧，是否会通过可识别的‘演替阶段（seral stages）’促使原生植被恢复，抑或这些变化属于‘人为破坏，脱离了生态学家的合理研究范畴’。尽管自彼时起，‘演替’的概念与生态学研究范畴已发生诸多演变，但对‘顶极群落（climax）演替’的研究兴趣，正是库纳莫尔植被保护区及此后诸多长期植被研究项目的最初动因。植被演替理论催生了永久性样方（quadrat）这一观测植被变化的研究手段。研究团队在库纳莫尔植被保护区内布设了大量永久性样方，并辅以固定摄影点位（photopoints），以推进第一项研究目标。尽管部分样方与点位在五年内便停止监测，但其余多数点位均得到了或多或少的定期采样，部分点位甚至几乎每年监测至今。早期已有多篇综述植被变化进展的研究成果发表。第二项研究目标并未得到推进，但基于库纳莫尔植被保护区及其监测记录的个体生态学（autecology）与种群动态研究至今仍在开展。本参考文献列表完整收录了基于该保护区研究产出的学术出版物。早期监测记录的持续性很大程度上得益于康斯坦斯·厄德利女士（Constance Eardley）的付出：她在植物学系担任讲师期间，每年都会组织师生前往保护区开展记录与维护工作。然而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数年。20世纪70年代，拉塞尔·辛克莱博士（Russell Sinclair）重新启动了监测项目，并持续开展野兔防控工作。尽管保护区最初布设了防兔围栏，但野兔从未被彻底根除，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。保护区的监测记录现已涵盖了50余年无绵羊放牧、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之外，因其可翻越围栏，其种群数量同样随季节波动。目前，库纳莫尔植被保护区的监测工作与记录管理仍在辛克莱博士的指导下持续开展。该保护区同时用于研究生教学与研究，亦可补充怀阿拉附近米德巴克野外站（Middleback Field Station）的干旱区环境生物学研究需求。

场地描述：该保护区位于库纳莫尔牧场的中心区域，该牧场是位于南澳大利亚州阿德莱德东北400公里处的绵羊放牧租赁地（地理坐标：南纬32°07′，东经139°20′），区域内以藜科灌丛（chenopod shrubland）为主，年均降水量约200毫米。该区域由低矮沙丘、沙质平原与较硬的壤土土壤构成，其间的平地分布有钙华石灰岩（travertine limestone）。植被覆盖为低矮开阔林地。沙丘上生长着卷叶相思树（Acacia aneura，俗称穆尔加木）、伯克氏相思树（A. burkittii）及爱沙木属（Eremophila）物种；沙质平原上为密集的贫枝木麻黄（Casuarina pauper，俗称黑橡树、比拉木）林；较硬的壤土区域则分布有假檀香木（Myoporum platycarpum，俗称假檀香）与奥利弗异木（Alectryon oleifolius，俗称牛轭木、玫瑰木）的混合群落。林下灌木在部分区域也构成低矮藜科灌丛群落，包括膀胱滨藜（Atriplex vesicaria，俗称膀胱盐肤木）、具柄滨藜（A. stipitata）以及蓝藜（Maireana sedifolia，俗称蓝bush）。此外还分布有多种其他藜科灌木，草本与短命草本（ephemeral herb）的覆盖度随季节变化。此外还可见多种决明属（Senna）、爱沙木属及其他灌木物种。

监测活动：在前往TGB奥斯本植被保护区的考察期间，会开展以下一项或多项监测工作：植被样方监测、摄影点位监测、决明样方（"Cassia Corner"，又称决明角）监测、假檀香木植株监测、盐肤木样线监测、决明种群监测、袋鼠样线监测、野兔活动监测与防控。

袋鼠样线：1997年，研究人员在TGB奥斯本植被保护区的北部边界附近，包括保护区内外区域，发现了大量极幼小的决明幼苗。为研究放牧对保护区外幼苗的影响，研究团队在围栏以北确定并测量了3个种群，在围栏以南（即保护区内）确定了第4个种群。对保护区围栏外的植株实施了不同的围栏处理：一组免受绵羊放牧，第二组免受绵羊与野兔放牧，第三组未受任何保护。保护区内的种群被认为可通过保护区围栏免受所有放牧活动的影响。研究人员为植株编号，用地面旁的屋面钉标记植株，并在制图卡片上绘制其位置。