DARLING RIVERINE PLAINS BIOREGION Background Report

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temporally. Annual averages are of little value for understanding the responses of ecological processes and requirements. Major changes have been made to this natural environment since European occupation. Extensive areas have been cleared of native vegetation, especially in the east, and in the west the combination of drought and overgrazing by sheep and rabbits have led to extensive denudation of the land. Agricultural enterprises have created changes including altered runoff patterns, changes in turbidity and nutrient status of rivers and increased salinity in the rives and in the soil. Stream regulation has changed flow and flooding patterns resulting in change to riverine and wetland ecosystems. Land tenure varies from large areas of leasehold land (50% of the bioregion) in the west, to predominantly freehold (40.5% of the bioregion) in the east. Approximately 9.5% of the bioregion is Crown land. The large number of administrative boundaries crossing this bioregion has resulted in inconsistent levels of research being carried out. No systematic plant or animal surveys have been conducted across the entire bioregion but general descriptions of vegetation communities are broadly consistent, with several woodland, shrubland, grassland and wetland communities having been described. Coolibah, Black Box and River Red Gum communities are generally the most common associations. More detailed mapping of these communities is needed. There are three communities, Corymbia tessellaris (carbeen), Acacia loderi (nelia), and the artesian springs community listed as threatened under the Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995 (NSW) (TSC Act) and the Acacia harpophylla (brigalow) community has a preliminary determination. The brigalow and artesian springs communities are also listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999 (Commonwealth of Australia) (EPBC Act) and several other communities have been noted as of concern. A total of 1 129 plant taxa are recorded on databases covering the Darling Riverine Plains bioregion within NSW. Nineteen of these species are listed as vulnerable or endangered, five as extinct under the TSC Act and twenty are on the national register of Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (ROTAP) (Briggs & Leigh 1996). There are also 229 exotic species recorded. These plant records are unevenly distributed across the bioregion and detailed floristic surveys have been patchy with large areas never having been surveyed. The distribution and abundance of terrestrial vertebrates is also based on few and scattered surveys and incidental records and there are substantial gaps in the coverage of the information. The most detailed information available is for waterbird fauna in the three major wetlands, Macquarie Marshes, Narran Lakes and the Gwydir Wetlands and some detailed analysis is possible. Five hundred and six terrestrial vertebrate species have been recorded from the DRP. Of these, 65 are listed under the TSC Act, 9 as extinct, 11 endangered and 45 as vulnerable. Other threatened species are noted as being predicted to occur in the bioregion or as of concern, either near threatened or in decline. Twenty-four species are listed under the Japan Australia and China Australia Migratory Bird Agreements (JAMBA and CAMBA). The information available for invertebrates and fish is more limited than that for the terrestrial vertebrates. This needs to be rectified, not only to understand the biodiversity of the bioregion but also because of their importance as food resources for vertebrate species both within and outside the DRP and as indicators of ecosystem health. There are 30 fish species known from the DRP and three of these have been listed as threatened by the Fisheries Management Act, 1994 (NSW). High fire frequency, anthropogenic climate change, clearing of native vegetation, predation by feral cats, foxes and Gambusia, competition and land degradation by feral goats and
abbits are listed as key threatening processes for the DRP under the TSC Act and/or the EPBC Act. There have also been preliminary determinations to list river regulation and competition by feral honeybees as key threatening processes. Weeds and pest animal species also pose significant threats to biodiversity within the DRP. Implications for biodiversity conservation management Conservation reserves make up less than one percent of the DRP bioregion and these do not cover the full range of plant communities present. Off-reserve conservation initiatives include the development of Catchment Management Plans, River Management Plans, Groundwater Management Plans, Regional Vegetation Management Plans and the declaration of Wildlife Refuges and Voluntary Conservation Agreements. There is insufficient information to define areas of biological significance but the major wetlands and Artesian Springs require consideration. The significance of the rivers as corridors for movement of wildlife also requires assessment. This bioregion covers a large area within NSW for which the floristic and faunal records and vegetation mapping is inadequate. Further survey and assessment must be based on the gaps highlighted in both this report and in the accompanying data audit and gap analysis report. It is also important to define the internal landscape variation using refined province or land system boundaries and to ensure an even coverage of survey effort across these sub-regions rather than using mapsheet analysis. Recommendations for further work emerging from the background information reviewed and the gap analysis study are listed at the end of each part of this report.
Page 1 and 2: DARLING RIVERINE PLAINS BIOREGION B
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Page 5 and 6: 3.2 Vegetation Mapping and Descript
Page 7 and 8: 10 APPENDICES 166 A CLIMATIC DATA B
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Initial Phase Assessment Phase 16/0
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Appendix A: Mean Monthly Rainfall a
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Major Rangetype Rangetype Physiogra
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Appendix C : Native Flora Other Tha
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Family Scientific Name Common Name
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APPENDIX E: Fauna Other than Those
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Common 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 198
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Taxa No Records Dataset Class Arach
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Taxa No Records Dataset Family Hebr
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Taxa No Records Dataset Tabanidae s
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Taxa No Records Dataset Berosus sp
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