A Guide to Restoring Vegetation in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region Acknowledgements
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A guide to restoring vegetation in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region Acknowledgements This guide was developed by the Coorong, We would like to thank the individuals who Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM) provided the expert opinion contained in Recovery Project Vegetation Program. this guide: Tim Croft, Kerri Muller, Susan The CLLMM Recovery Project (2011-16) Gehrig, Janet Pedler, Ben Simon, Will Miles, is a $137 million investment by the South Terry Sim, Ann Prescott and Hafiz Stewart. Australian Government’s Murray Futures Thank you also to the Ngarrindjeri and program and the Australian Government local landholders who allowed us access to enhance the resilience of this Ramsar to their properties. Dr Ross Meffin, Hafiz listed wetland. The Vegetation Program Stewart and Blair Kavanagh provided was delivered through a partnership valuable comments on the initial drafts of between the Australian and South this document, while staff at the Science, Australian governments, local community Monitoring and Knowledge branch, groups and the Ngarrindjeri Regional particularly Dr Nigel Willoughby, undertook Authority. The priority vegetation the initial analysis to describe vegetation communities identified in this guide, communities described here. Blair and the species lists associated with these Kavanagh produced the maps and Dr Tim communities were developed to fulfil Croft reviewed the vegetation communities the goals of the Vegetation Program. and the plant species obtained within them. Specifically these were increasing resilience and habitat connectivity in the region. This guide should be used with that in mind. Contents Background ............................................2 Vegetation community descriptions 22 How this guide was developed ...........4 1. Eucalyptus fasciculosa (Pink Gum) Woodland ...........................................22 Soil types ..................................................4 2. Eucalyptus cosmophylla (Cup Gum) Management landscapes .........................4 and E. baxteri (Brown Stringy Bark) Vegetation communities ..........................5 Woodland Over Heath ........................26 Priority vegetation communities ...............5 3. Coastal Shrubland ...............................30 Species lists ..............................................5 4. Eucalyptus diversifolia ssp. diversifolia How to use this guide ..........................6 (Coastal White Mallee) Mallee ............34 Where are you within the region? ......8 5. Allocasuarina verticillata (Drooping Sheoak) Low Woodland .....................38 Landform element descriptions ..........9 6. Mixed Eucalypt Woodland / Mallee Soil types...............................................10 Communities .......................................42 Vegetation communities .....................12 7. Freshwater Fringing Wetland ...............57 Key to the CLLMM vegetation 8. Duma florulenta (Lignum) Shrubland ..58 communities .........................................16 9. Samphire Swamp (including Melaleuca Coastal Dunes .........................................16 halmaturorum Swamp, Duma florulenta South East ...............................................17 Low Shrubland and Gahnia filum Sedgeland) ..........................................62 Mount Lofty Ranges ................................18 10. Expert Opinion Based Vegetation Lower Lakes Terrestrial ............................20 Communities .....................................66 References ...........................................80 A guide to restoring vegetation in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region 1 Background Located in South Australia at the terminus However, when assessing individual sites, it of the Murray River, the Coorong, Lower can often be difficult to accurately identify Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM) region the vegetation community that occurred has immense ecological, economic and there in the past. Even if native vegetation cultural importance. From 2011 to 2016, remains at a site, it may be difficult to the CLLMM Recovery Project Vegetation determine if it is a true representation Program undertook landscape scale of the historical vegetation community, restoration within a 5 km buffer of the especially if the site has previously been Lower Lakes and Coorong (page 3). revegetated. It is also possible for multiple The project aimed to restore ecological communities to co-occur, which can further character and build resilience in the region’s complicate the planning process. ecosystems and communities. While to some extent it may be necessary This guide was initially developed to direct to make informed guesses when planning the Vegetation Program’s revegetation revegetation at a site, simple field activities, but is also a valuable resource assessments can be used to underpin these for others undertaking revegetation in decisions. This guide provides a framework, the CLLMM region. While the Vegetation in the form of an easy-to-use key, which Program undertook both terrestrial and can be used to direct field assessments wetland revegetation activities, this guide and revegetation activities at sites in the focusses on the terrestrial aspect of the CLLMM region. program. It should be noted that this guide does The vegetation communities presented in not take into account how anthropogenic this guide are based on a landscape scale impacts (e.g. livestock grazing, ground assessment of the region. By identifying compaction, etc.), climate change or vegetation communities that are a priority habitat fragmentation may influence to restore, we can make the best use of future trajectories of degraded remnant time and resources when undertaking and revegetated habitats. This would revegetation. require a much better understanding of the vegetation communities in question, and further research is necessary if we want to adequately restore the structure and functionality of highly degraded areas and those subject to ongoing disturbance. 2 A guide to restoring vegetation in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region STRATHALBYN ! TAILEM BEND Langhorne Creek ! ! ! Mount Wellington Compass ! ! Milang Cooke Plains Lake Alexandrina GOOLWA ! VICTOR HARBOR Murray Lake Mouth Albert ! Meningie T h ! e Coonalpyn C o o ro n g T h e C o o ro n g S o u t h A u s t r a l i a CLLMM Recovery Project Boundary ± 0 10 20 30 Kilometers KINGSTON S.E. ! DE H Sta nd ar d 3 A guide to restoring vegetation in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region How this guide was developed The management landscapes, vegetation Four CLLMM management landscapes communities and species lists identified in were identified: this guide were defined during a landscape 1. Coastal Dunes assessment. This assessment was informed 2. South East by available datasets (such as soil mapping and biological survey data), as well as field 3. Mount Lofty Ranges assessments and expert opinion. 4. Lower Lakes Terrestrial The Lower Lakes Terrestrial management Soil types landscape contains one sub-region (A) and the Mount Lofty Ranges management Environmental factors drive the landscape contains four sub-regions (B to E, distribution and composition of vegetation page 8). These sub-regions are designed to communities. Within the CLLMM help differentiate vegetation communities landscape, soil type is thought to largely in these management landscapes. determine where vegetation communities are found. The CLLMM region has Vegetation communities undergone detailed soil mapping, and as A landscape assessment of the such, soil types form the foundation for CLLMM region (Bonifacio et al. 2016) the vegetation communities defined in this was undertaken to define vegetation guide. communities and their underlying On page 10 and 11 we provide a brief environmental setting. This was done by description of the soils most commonly using existing biological survey data from found in the region. Further details can the Biological Database of South Australia be found in The Soils of Southern South (BDBSA) and soil mapping. Australia by Hall et al. (2009). The landscape assessment quantitatively Management landscapes identified twelve vegetation communities and another four were identified with the Management landscapes are areas within assistance of expert knowledge. the CLLMM region with distinct soils (see map on page 13) and were developed Full descriptions of each vegetation to reduce the complexity of the region community can be found on pages 12 - 13, for restoration purposes. These were with a stylised diagram showing where determined by identifying geographic they are likely to be found in the CLLMM regions across the CLLMM region with landscape on pages 14 - 15. similar soil subgroups (Hall et al. 2009) and soil land systems (DWLBC Soil and Land Program 2007). 4 A guide to restoring vegetation in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Region Priority vegetation Species lists communities For each of the vegetation communities The landscape assessment (Bonifacio et described in this guide, plant species and al. 2016) also identified priority vegetation their planting densities were obtained communities for conservation and from field surveys, or where this was not restoration, using birds as an indicator of possible, expert opinion. The species lists biodiversity declines. Birds were selected provide an indication of the suite of species as an indicator species since they are easily that can be found in each vegetation detectable and data was readily available community and can act as a starting