Wetland Definition and Fauna Assessment of Cape York Peninsula
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CAFE YqRK-PENIN,SULA LANO USE STRATEGY NATURAL RESOURCES ANALYSIS PROGRAM (NRAP) I 1 WETLAND DEFINITION AND FAUNA ASSESSMENT OF CAPE YORK PENINSULA P.V. Driscoll Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage 1995 CYPLUS is a joint initiative of the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments CAPE YORK PENINSULA LAND USE STRATEGY (CYPLUS) Natural Resources Analysis Program WETLAND DEFINITION AND FAUNA ASSESSMlENT OF CAPE YORK PENINSULA P.V. Driscoll Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage 1995 CYPLUS is a joint initiative of the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments Final report on project: NR09 - WETLAND FAUNA SURVEY Recommended citation: Driscoll, P.V. (1995). 'Wetland Definition and Fauna Assessment of Cape York Peninsula'. (Cape York Peninsula Land Use Strategy, Office of the Co-ordinator General of Queensland, Brisbane, Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories, Canberra, and Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, Brisbane.) Note: Due to the timing of publication, reports on other CYPLUS projects may not be fully cited in the BIBLIOGRAPHY section. However, they should be able to be located by author, agency or subject. ISBN 0 7242 6208 3 The State of Queensland and Commonwealth of Australia 1995. Copyright protects this publication. Except for purposes permitted by the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of the Office of the Co-ordinator General of Queensland and the Australian Government Publishing Service. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to: Office of the Co-ordimator General, Government of Queensland PO Box 185 BRISBANE ALBERT STREET Q 4002 The Manager, ' Commonwealth Information Services GPO Box 84 CANBERRA ACT 2601 CAPE YORK PENINSULA LAND USE STRATEGY STAGE I PREFACE TO PROJECT REPORTS / Cape York Peninsula Land Use Strategy (CYPLUS) is an initiative to provide a basis for public participation in planning for the ecologically sustainable development of Cape York Peninsula. It is jointly funded by the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments and is being carried out in three stages: Stage I - information gathering; Stage II - development of principles, policies and processes; and Stage III - implementation and review. The project dealt with in this report is a part of Stage I of CYPLUS. The main components of Stage I of CYPLUS consist of two data collection programs, the development of a Geographic Information System (GIs) and the establishment of processes for public participation. The data collection and collation work was conducted within two broad programs, the Natural Resources Analysis Program (NRAP) and the Land Use Program (LUP). The project reported on here forms part of one of these programs. The objectives of NRAP were to collect and interpret base data on the natural resources of Cape York Peninsula to provide input to: evaluation of the potential of those resources for a range of activities related to the use agd management of land in line with economic, environmental and social values; and formulation of the land use policies, principles and processes of CYPLUS. Projects examining both physical and biological resources were included in NRAP together with Geographic Information System (GIs) projects. NRAP projects and are -, listed in the following Table. i I Physical ResourceIGIS Projects I Biological Resource Projects I. Bedrock geological data - digitising and Vegetation mapping (NROI) integration (NR05) Airborne geophysical survey (NR15) Marine plant (seagrass/mangrove) distribution (NR06) Coastal environment geoscience survey Insect fauna survey (NR17) N14) Mineral resource inventory (NR04) Fish fauna survey (NRIO) Water resource investigation (groundwater) Terrestrial vertebrate fauna survey (NR03) (NR16) Regolith terrain mapping (NR12) Wetland fauna survey (NRW) Physical ResourcelGIS Projects Biological Resource Projects - . .. 1 Land resource inventory (NR02) Flora data and modelling (NR18) Environmental region analysis (NRl 1) Fauna distribution modelling (NR19) CYPLUS data into NRIC database FINDAR Golden-shouldered parrot conservation - (NR20) management (NR2 1) Queensland GIs devglopment and maintenance (NRO8) * These projects are accumulating and storing all Stage I data that is submitted in GIs compatible formats. Research priorities for Qe LUP were set through the public participation process with the I objectives of: ,- ! collecting information on a wide range of social, cultural, economic and environmental issues relevant to Cape York Peninsula; and highlighting interactions between people, land (resource use) and nature sectors. Projects were undertaken within these sector areas and are listed in the following Table. Population Current land use Surface water resources Transport services and Land tenure Fire infrastructure Values, needs and aspirations Indigenous management of land Feral and pest animals and sea Services and infrastructure Pastoral industry weeds Economic assessment Primary industries (non-pastoral, Land degradation and soil non-forestry) erosion Secondary and tertiary industries Forest resources Co~l~ervationand natural heritage assessment Traditional activities Commercial and non commercial Conservation and National Park fisheries management Current administrative structures Mineral resource potential and mining industry Tourism industry .. Lists of Tables. Figures and Appendices ............................................................... 11 .... summary ................................................................................................... 111 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 2.0 Methods ............................................................................................... -2 3.0 Description of Data sets for transfer to CYPLUS GIs .......................................... -4 3.1 Wetland vegetation summary ............................................................... 4 3.1.1 Data Quality information ......................................................... 4 3.1.2 Data Dictionary .................................................................... 6 3.2 Coastal data set .............................................................................. -8 3.2.1 Data Quality information .......................................................... 8 3.2.2 Data Dictionary .................................................................. 10 3.3 Aerial wetland bird counts ................................................................. 13 3.3.1 Data Quality information ....................................................... 13 3.3.2 Data Dictionary .................................................................. 15 3.4 Site wetland bird counts ................................................................... 17 3.4.1 Data Quality information ....................................................... 17 3.4.2 Data Dictionary .................................................................. 17 4.0 Results ................................................................................................ 20 4.1 Wetland categories using vegetation mapping ........................................... 20 4.1.1 Distribution of wetland categories............................................. 20 4.1.2 Classification of ten minute grid cells using wetland categories.......... -25 4.2 Wetland features of the coastline ........................................................... 29 4.2.1 Distribution of coastal features .................. \ ............................. 32 4.2.2 Classification of ten minute grid cells using coastal features............... 36 4.3 Vertebrate fauna records for ten minute grid cells .....................................-40 4.3.1 Diversity patterns of birds, mammals, frogs and reptiles .................. 46 4.3.2 Diversity patterns of different wetland bird groups ......................... 48 4.4 Quantitative aerial survey of waterbirds ................................................. 51 5.0 Discussion ........................................................................................... 53 6.0 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................5.4 8.0 Appendices ........................................................................................... 57 Tables Page 1. Vegetation map units and photo patterns used in determining wetland categories... .. .. .21 2. ~~rnrnar~values for a selection of "wetland" parameters from the CSIRO database.. .. -30 ' 3. Bird species characteristic of wetlands.. .. .. .. .. .41 4. Mammal, frog and reptile species characteristic of wetlands.. .. .. .. 44 Figures Page 1. Coverage of different wetland categories of vegetation.. .. .. .. .22 2. Classification of ten minute grid cells using wetland categories of vegetation .. -26 3. Mapping of wetland vietation classification groups onto ten minute grid cells.. .. .. .27 4. Mean values of wetland vegetation for each classification group.. .. .28 5. Spatial variation in indices of coastal wetlands.. .. .. .. ...... .. .. ..... .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .33 6. Classification of ten minute grid cells using indices of coastal wetlands.. .. .37 7. Mapping of coastal wetland classification groups onto ten minute grid cells.. .. .38 8. Mean values of coastal wetland indices for each classification group.. .. .. 39 9. Distribution of wetland bird species compared with all bird species