DRAFT Tuart Conservation and Management Strategy

OUTCOME 2: RESEARCH
Investigations will lead to a thorough knowledge of the
biological value of tuart and its ecosystems, and a thorough
understanding of what affects tuart’s health
AIM: Undertake research that documents tuart’s biological value
Targets
Strategies
17. By Q3 2005 a business plan of
key research projects, principal
investigators and funding
arrangements is completed for
research into tuart’s biological value.
• Develop programs and establish research priorities for
documenting the full suites of invertebrate and vertebrate
animals associated with tuart.
• Develop programs and establish research priorities that
address gaps in the knowledge of tuart’s biology 15 .
AIM: Undertake ecological research addressing tuart’s health
Targets
Strategies
18. By Q4 2006 a business plan of
key research projects, principle
investigators and funding
arrangements is completed for
research into tuart health
• Develop programs and establish priorities for tuart
woodland research including: (i) ecosystem health, (ii)
synergies between biodiversity conservation, land repair
and agriculture, (iii) fragmentation of habitat and
connectivity, (iv) critical thresholds, (v) habitat alteration
impacts on the biota and ecosystem processes, and (vi)
re-establishment techniques for disturbed and degraded
tuart woodland sites.
• Identify high disturbance areas (eg. Yalgorup decline),
and implement specific research programs aimed at the
management of protectable sites and the restoration and
rehabilitation of disturbed sites.
• Encourage and fund research and development projects
that integrate the sustainable conservation and
management of tuart woodlands with urban and industrial
development and agriculture.
• Involve land managers in setting priorities and conducting
research.
• Ensure that research and information projects are
relevant to tuart conservation and management problems
and have clear implementation outcomes.
• Ensure that integration process takes account of
environmental risks.
15 Includes reproductive biology, phenology, seed-bank dynamics, seedling recruitment, and the effects of
fragmentation and fire regimes on tuart and understorey vegetation species (Ruthrof et al. 2002).
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