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<strong>Background</strong> <strong>Info</strong>: Springbrook National Park is listed as a world heritage site as it is a remanet of the north side of a volcano shield that was believed to dominate around 23 million years ago. The shield rapped around all of the Tweed Valley with Mt Warning being the centre. On the December of 1994 UNESCO (World Heritage Committee) Committee officially declared that the Gondwana Rainforest this area includes places like Lamington and Springbrook National Parks and the main parts of Mt Barneys range. In the past 200 years 3 quarters of all Australian rainforests have been destroyed. However, the Gondwana region has continued to survive and will for many years to come as it is home to over 1700 different types of flowering plants and over 500 different vertebrate animals. The Undisturbed and The Disturbed Site: On the day of the testing, the results were recorded in two different places (An undisturbed site and a disturbed site) to compare between the different areas of the Mt Cougal area the first being an undisturbed site off track from the normal route and the second being a disturbed site with human impacts Undisturbed site At the undisturbed site, there was a small stream running with large rocks no canopy cover over the stream and dense forest surrounding the area and abundance of small seedlings and saplings. The time taken to conduct the measurements was 50 minutes, there was a total of 25 seedlings and 17 saplings with leaf litter just under half of the quadrat. The three trees in the 4 metre by 4 metre square quadrat were 2.31 metres, 2.12 metres and 3.08 metres with an average height of 2.5 metres tall. The average air temperature was 17.1° C, the average ground temperature was 14.04° C and the soil pH was 5.7. At this site, the average light intensity 602.1 LUX, an average 70% canopy cover and an average of 42.50% ground cover. The human impacts found in the area were beer bottles, thongs, plastic wrappers and pink plastic markers on trees. The abiotic factors in the include soil, water, rocks, temperature and humidity. Disturbed site The disturbed site consists of an open area with no canopy surrounding an abandon drilling station with tall trees and closed canopy to the side with few seedlings and saplings. There was a total of 15 seedlings and 12 saplings with leaf litter covering just of half of the quadrat.
The three trees between the quadrat had a height of 2.46 metres, 3.36 metres and 6.51 metres with an average height of 4.11. In this area, the average air temperature was 16.7° C, the average ground temperature was 15.7 and with a soil pH of 6. The area had an average light intensity of 1347.40 LUX, an average of 75% canopy cover and an average ground cover of 55% At the disturbed area the human impacts included: a concrete pathway, a wooden fence plastic wrappers and an abandon drilling station. The abiotic factors for this area were soil, temperature and humidity Comparison The difference in the amount of seedlings and saplings between the two areas vary in numbers as the second area doesn’t have people constantly walking in and out as opposed to the disturbed sit that was right next to the pathway, this makes the growth of seedlings and saplings hard as they could be trampled. The difference in the height of the trees differs due to where the quadrat was set up. The air temperature, the soil temperature and the light intensity for each site ranges due to the amount canopy cover that intern effects the amount of sunlight that reaches the soil and air unless there are any open spaces allowing sunlight to reach those areas in the mornings and afternoons. The average soil pH of the for both of the sites are very close together and are in the optimal growing range for plants. The canopy cover for these sites are very close with the disturbed site with just a little but denser, this is only due to where the quadrat was set up, for the other quadrats the canopy cover was not as high. The ground cover in the two sites was similar to the canopy cover as where it was placed was where all of the ground cover had fallen onto the pathway and had been swept up onto our area, this creates a human impact as there would not usually be as much ground cover in just one area. Conclusion This report shows the difference between a disturbed site an undisturbed site in the Mt Cougal area. It demonstrates how the sites differ in terms of number of seedlings and saplings, tree height, air temperature, soil temperature, soil pH, light intensity, canopy cover and ground cover. Using the listed tests, the report is able to clearly indicate the differences in the two sites.

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