Appendix D Terrestrial and Aquatic Biodiversity - Environment ...

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SZ247: Bat survey from the Western Desert Resources Towns River project area, NT 6.0 CONCLUSIONS 1. At least eight species of bat are present in the MLA – Towns River project area, but one of them is more likely to roost outside of it (Taphozous georgianus) given the observed lack of caves and crevices suitable for this species. In other parts of the project area, at least 10 species were present, including species such as Rhinonicteris aurantia and Vespadelus caurinus that use caves for daytime roosting. DNA barcoding suggested the possibility of one extra cryptic form related to Scotorepens greyii, which cannot be resolved further without context genetic reference data. 2. There is currently no firm evidence that the bare-rumped sheath-tailed bat Saccolaimus saccolaimus utilises the MLA – Towns River project area for roosting or foraging, or other parts of the project area. However its presence is still a possibility, given the observation of several large vertical hollows in tree trunks in Eucalyptus tetrodonta – E. miniata Mid Open Woodland and the single historical record from the Roper Bar area. 3. Echolocation calls of Saccolaimus were conspicuously abundant (but not quantified) in the MLA – Towns River project area, though it is anticipated that many if not all of these derive from S. flaviventris. However, species level identifications in Saccolaimus based on echolocation call characteristics are limited by a lack of known robust diagnostic features that allow them to be distinguished, though new call types have recently been characterised and presented as of 13 April 2012. 4. A novel method for investigating tree hollows for tree-roosting bats with a pole-mounted camera proved to be challenging (especially with regard to manoeuvring equipment into the hollow), but still has potential if the apertures of hollows are within 10 m of the ground. 7.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to EcOz Environmental for the opportunity to participate in this survey and for their friendly help in the field; to Vicki Thomson for assistance with DNA barcoding, The University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum for access to laboratory facilities, and to Molhar Pty Ltd for managing the genetic component of this study; Chris Corben and Greg Ford for making available unpublished information on Saccolaimus calls; Dr Stephen Richards of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory for access to bat specimens for comparative work; and to the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission for permission to capture bats under permit number 43654. Page 17 of 33
SZ247: Bat survey from the Western Desert Resources Towns River project area, NT 8.0 REFERENCES ABS 2006. Recommendations of the Australasian Bat Society Inc for reporting standards for insectivorous bat surveys using bat detectors. The Australasian Bat Society Newsletter 27: 6–9. Armstrong, K. and Reardon, T. 2006. Standardising common names of bats in Australia. The Australasian Bat Society Newsletter 26: 37–42. Armstrong, K.N. and Kerry, L. 2011. Modelling the prey detection performance of Rhinonicteris aurantia (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) in different atmospheric conditions discounts the notional role of relative humidity in adaptive evolution. Journal of Theoretical Biology 278: 44–54. Bullen R.D. and McKenzie N.L. 2002. Scaling bat wingbeat frequency and amplitude. Journal of Experimental Biology 205: 2615–2626. Churchill, S.K. 2008. Australian bats. 2nd ed. Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW. Corben C. 2010. Acoustic identification of Saccolaimus. Oral presentation at the 14th Australasian Bat Society conference, Darwin, Northern Territory, 12 – 14 July 2010. Csorba, G., Bumrungsri, S., Francis, C., Helgen, Bates, P., Heaney, L., Balete, D. and Thomson, B. 2008. Saccolaimus saccolaimus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on 11 March 2012. DEWHA 2010. Survey guidelines for Australia's threatened bats. Guidelines for detecting bats listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Canberra. Duffy, A.M., Lumsden, L.F., Caddle, C.R., Chick, R.R. and Newell, G.R. 2000. The efficacy of Anabat ultrasonic detectors and harp traps for surveying microchiropterans in south-eastern Australia. Acta Chiropterologica 2: 127–144. Duncan, A., Baker, G.B. and Montgomery, N. (eds.) 1999. The Action Plan for Australian bats. Environment Australia, Canberra. Hall, T.A. 1999. BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series 41: 95–98. Hall, L.S., Thomson, B.G. and Milne, D.J. 2008. Bare-rumped sheath-tailed bat Saccolaimus saccolaimus. pp. 475–476 In: Mammals of Australia 3rd edition (ed. S. Van Dyck and R. Strahan). Australian Museum, Sydney. Ibáňez, C., García-Mudarra, J.L., Ruedi, M., Stadelmann, B. and Juste, J. 2006. The Iberian contribution to cryptic diversity in European bats. Acta Chiropterologica 8: 277–297. Ivanova, N.V., Zemlak, T.S., Hanner, R.H. and Hebert, P.D.N. 2007. Universal primer cocktails for fish DNA barcoding. Molecular Ecology Notes 7: 544–548. McKean, J.L., Friend, G., and Hertog, A.L. 1981. Occurrence of the sheathtailed bat Taphozous saccolaimus in the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Naturalist 4: 20. Milne, D.J. 2002. Key to the bat calls of the Top End of the Northern Territory. Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, Technical Report No. 71. Page 18 of 33
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EcOz Environmental Services Draft E
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Document Control Record Prepared by
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5.5 Sensitive Habitats ............
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Figure 25: Notable habitat identifi
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Appendices FAUNA APPENDICES Appendi
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Figure 1: Locations for three propo
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Table 1: A summary of key informati
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• Fine scale vegetation mapping (
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Coastal Port Facilities The coastal
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“Vegetation mapping is not an exa
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• Water bodies - The waterbodies
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2.3 Groundwater Dependant Ecosystem
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Haul Road Transport Corridor Five s
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Figure 2: Map of all fauna survey l
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Bat Survey Bat species present were
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The Freshwater fish surveys were ca
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2.6 Targeted Surveys 2.6.1 Bare-rum
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Figure 3: The IUCN Red List categor
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D-3. Desktop Review 3.1 Climate The
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3.3 Sites of Conservation Significa
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3.4 Topography and Geomorphology Th
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Figure 6: Five-year fire scar map o
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3.6 Weeds Weed data was collected f
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3.7.2 Flora Records Flora surveys w
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Figure 10: Map of existing flora re
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Figure 11: Proposed site layout pla
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Table 9: Five main vegetation and l
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Veg. Type Table 10: Vegetation Type
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Figure 13: Five main vegetation typ
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4.3.2 Vegetation Condition The fire
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(note that conceptual site layout h
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It is unknown whether an increase o
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Site Photo Description F5 F6 F7 F8a
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Site Photo Description F12 F13 F14
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4.5.2 Fauna Survey Results The Wet
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• The remaining species are all l
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Figure 24: Locations of freshwater
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4.7 Bare-rumped Sheathtail Bat Surv
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Figure 25: Notable habitat identifi
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Sections of the McArthur land syste
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Table 14: Land system and vegetatio
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Land System Landform Soils Vegetati
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5.3 Vegetation Surveys National Veg
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NVIS Level 3 Veg ID Description (ad
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Figure 27: Haul road (and surrounds
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5.3.1 Notable flora records Surveys
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Towns Survey - Lower Reaches Site 4
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Towns Survey - Upper Site 3 Site 4
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Table 18: Fauna site habitat descri
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diversity. The riparian zone and ad
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Figure 34: Map 1 of 4 - Haul road s
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Figure 36: Map 3 of 4 - Haul road s
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5.5.2 Rocky Sandstone Ridges Rocky
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feature the three species of freshw
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Figure 39: Land system map of the c
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Table 22: Vegetation type summaries
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6.3.2 Vegetation Condition The vege
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6.3.4 Introduced Plant Species Envi
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Site Photo Description Site 4 Site
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6.4.2 Fauna Survey Results The surv
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6.5 Sensitive Habitats None of the
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6.5.4 Melaleuca Swamp This is a rel
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Figure 46: Map of threatened and no
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SCIENTIFIC NAME Falcunculus frontat
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7.1.2 Migratory Shorebirds The Gulf
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Figure 48: Location of MLA and haul
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7.1.4 Proposed Status Changes In 20
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Table 29: Notable flora species wit
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SCIENTIFIC NAME LENTIBULARIACEAE Ut
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7.3 Sensitive Habitat 7.3.1 MLA Are
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D-9. References Aldrick, JM & Wilso
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NRETAS 2006, Threatened Species of
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Client: Western Desert Resources Lt
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SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME Client:
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SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME VARANID
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Page 181 and 182: Table 2-5: Freshwater vertebrates f
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Upper: Low open woodland dominated
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mitrasacmoides (fq 50%), Panicum ef
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Ground: Murdannia graminea (fq 100%
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25%), Jacksonia odontoclada (fq 25%
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Ground: Crotalaria montana (fq 33%)
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Carissa lanceolata (fq 25%), Dolich
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33%), Dimeria ornithopoda (fq 33%),
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Landform: simple slope General Cond
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Ground: Polygala longifolia (fq 67%
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Ground: Ammannia multiflora (fq 100
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Ground: Alloteropsis semialata (fq
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cunninghamii (fq 67%), Grevillea pa
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Ground: Bulbostylis barbata (fq 67%
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Desmodium brownii (fq 20%), Desmodi
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graminea (fq 33%), Nesaea muelleri
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trifolia (fq 33%), Cyperus holoscho
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microcephala (fq 67%), Melochia cor
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General Condition: This single site
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Site ID Map Easting Northing Descri
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Table 10-3: Vegetation Assessment o
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Table 10-5: Vegetation Assessment o
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Site ID Map Easting Northing W54 2
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Site ID Map Easting Northing Client
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Table 10-8: Riparian Vegetation Ass
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Table 10-10: Riparian Vegetation As
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Table 11-2: Port Area. Vegetation U
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Table 11-4: Port Area. Vegetation U
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Voucher No. Strata labels Biodivers
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Appendix D Terrestrial and Aquatic Biodiversity - Environment ...

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