Hollow-Bearing Trees As a Habitat Resource Along an Urbanisation Gradient

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Hollow-Bearing Trees As a Habitat Resource Along an Urbanisation Gradient Hollow-Bearing Trees as a Habitat Resource along an Urbanisation Gradient Author Treby, Donna Louise Published 2014 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School Griffith School of Environment DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/1674 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367782 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Hollow-bearing Trees as a Habitat Resource along an Urbanisation Gradient Donna Louise Treby MPhil (The University of Queensland) Environmental Futures Centre. Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast. A thesis submitted for the fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. December 2013. “If we all did the things we are capable of doing. We would literally live outstanding lives. I think; if we all lived our lives this way, we would truly create an amazing world.” Thomas Edison. i Acknowledgements: It would be remiss of me if I did not begin by acknowledging my principal supervisor Dr Guy Castley, for the inception, development and assistance with the completion of this study. Your generosity, open door policy and smiling face made it a pleasure to work with you. I owe you so much, but all I can give you is my respect and heartfelt thanks. Along with my associate supervisor Prof. Jean-Marc Hero their joint efforts inspired me and opened my mind to the complexities and vagaries of ecological systems and processes on such a large scale. To my volunteers in the field, Katie Robertson who gave so much of her time and help in the early stages of my project, Agustina Barros, Ivan Gregorian, Sally Healy, Guy Castley, Katrin Lowe, Kieran Treby, Phil Treby, Erin Wallace, Nicole Glenane, Nick Clark, Mark Ballantyne, Chris Tuohy, Ryan Pearson and Nickolas Rakatopare all contributed to the collection of data for this study. A huge thanks also goes out to my research assistants Clay Simpkins, Greg Lollback and James Bone for carrying all the gear and following me around in the bush at night; we shared many laughs and I appreciated your company on some of those ‘tough’ or ‘itchy’ nights. Dr Greg Lollback, thank you for your patience and assistance with ‘R’ and statistical analysis in general. Thank you to Professor Clyde Wild and Michael Arthur for statistical support. I would also like to thank Greg Ford from Balance Environmental for helping me with my many questions about identifying bat call frequencies with Anabat. Thanks also to Kevin Wormington for supplying tree growth data and Michael Ngugi for tree mortality data. Diana a.k.a. DD Virkki you have been a pleasure to work with, hang out with, and laugh with, thank you for being you. You also managed to help me overcome my statistical dyslexia which will stay with me forever. Special mention must go to Kat Lowe; we have shared a lot of laughs, fears and tears; but mostly laughs together, thank you for being such a true friend. To my fellow HDR comrades in Room 3.26, I thank you all for just being there as we all shared our struggles and frustrations, I wish you all the very best in your future careers. A heart-felt thank you must go to Dr Clare Morrison for providing valuable feedback on draft chapters of this thesis. Your ability to reduce my stress levels was significant (p < 0.05). Thank you to the many people that supplied me with GIS data. Without it I would not have been able to complete my study in such fine detail. Chris Woodman at Energex, Peter Dunn iv at Power Link, Annie Kelly at DERM, Blair Prince and Rodney Anderson from Gold Coast City Council. Additional thanks go to Rebecca Castley for helping me make sense of the GIS layers. The staff from the Natural Areas Management Unit and the Land for Wildlife team within Gold Coast City Council was always extremely helpful: Jason Searle, Dr Tim Robson, Howard Taylor, Wayne Abbott, Steve Vigar, Brett Galloway, Rachael Niotakis, Darryl Larsen and Lexie Webster. To the many private land owners that allowed open access to their properties in order to undertake this research I am deeply grateful. Wal and Heather Mayr, Brit and Clay Badenock, Heather Smart, Jennie and Michael Tippet, Carolyn Reid, Steve and Karen Dalton, Julia Edwards, Peter Lyons and well as John Palmer and Sharon Kolka from Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat, Richard Laws from Gainsborough Greens Golf Course and Steve Rowell from Jacobs Well Education Centre. Last, but in no ways least, I cannot thank and praise my husband enough for giving me the freedom to explore and learn. Phil Treby you are one in a million, I love and admire the man that you are. Funding for the project as well as a top up scholarship was generously supplied by Gold Coast City Council. This study was completed under the following DERM permits: Scientific Purposes Permits WITK06680910, WISP06680710 and Permit to Collect biological or geological material from Queensland State Forest, Timber Reserves and other State Lands: Permit number TWB/01/2010. Ethics approval was obtained from Griffith University Animal Ethics Committee: Ethics approval number ENV/07/09/AEC to Dr Guy Castley. In order to complete this thesis I have had to delve, inquire and compare; spending hours, months and years of my life observing the many changing faces of nature. My work has forced me to question nature and approach her from a different aspect in order to understand her secrets; if that is at all possible. Thus, mainly through reading, this journey has led me into the company of men and women of far greater knowledge than I could ever hope to acquire. v Abstract: Habitat fragmentation due to rapid urbanisation is occurring globally and results in small and often isolated patches of remnant bushland. These small, forest remnants contribute to the conservation of biodiversity within urban areas, as they can, and often do, contain suitable habitat structures. Habitat structures such as hollow-bearing trees are recognised as important features of forests globally. Therefore, the abundance of hollow-bearing trees within a landscape may be a controlling factor for many biota where no other habitat resources provide a feasible substitute. Therein, this thesis investigates five aspects in relation to the ecology of hollow-bearing trees as a habitat resource within a rapidly urbanising landscape. In the first instance a review of the literature was undertaken. This presents a summary of the importance of hollow-bearing trees globally, and identifies threats associated with their conservation. Focus is centred on the importance of this habitat resource within the Australian context, concluding with a description of the study area and thesis aims. A hierarchical analysis of the current legislation that exists within Australia to protect hollow- bearing trees was then undertaken. The evaluation revealed, that despite Federal and State legislation acknowledging the importance of hollow-bearing trees to biodiversity, there are insufficient mechanisms in place at all levels of government to halt the decline of hollow- bearing trees across various landscapes. A subsequent quantitative review of local councils’ policies and websites in regards to biodiversity conservation and specifically the management of hollow-bearing trees across four eastern Australian states revealed that few (< 5%) had specific plans in place to protect this habitat resource. While existing legislation identifies the need to retain ‘forests’, ‘regional ecosystems’, ‘remnant habitat’ or vegetation communities’, it masks the fact that it is largely ineffective in delivering real on-ground conservation action for finer scale habitat features such as hollow-bearing trees, particularly those found within urban landscapes and non-protected forests. vii To gain a greater understanding of the importance of this habitat resource at the local scale the third Chapter undertook an inventory of hollow-bearing trees along an urbanisation gradient within a rapidly urbanising landscape on the Gold Coast in south-east Queensland. A total of 6048 trees from 45 remnant forest sites along the urbanisation gradient were recorded, of which there were 916 hollow bearing trees containing 2143 hollows. Twenty- four species of eucalypt were hollow-bearing, with standing dead trees containing the most hollows (15%). Hollow type was found to be dominated by small (≤ 10 cm) bayonet type hollows. The stands of remnant forest patches in this study were found to be of an even age, with 79% of all trees being within the 10-40 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) range. The urbanisation gradient did not influence hollow type, however, it was found to influence the numbers of each individual hollow type found. No relationship was found to occur between environmental variables, disturbance and the urbanisation gradient on the number of hollow- bearing tree species per site, nor did they have any influence on hollow density per site. Consistent with previous research, this study confirmed that considerable variation exists in the availability of hollow-bearing trees across the urban matrix. The functional ecology of habitat remnants along the urbanisation gradient was then investigated in Chapter 4. This chapter quantified the impacts of urbanisation, stand density, landscape variables such as fire and logging history as well as environmental variables on hollow-bearing tree density within urban remnant forests. Logging history was found to be the driving factor influencing hollow-bearing tree density along the urbanisation gradient on the Gold Coast. Historical land-use practices and their effects leave long lasting impacts on the environment driving habitat structure and function over time. These findings highlight the significance of incorporating historical land use practices into current and future urban planning, as these impact on remaining biodiversity values in rapidly changing landscapes such as those found along urbanisation gradients.
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