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Habitat Preferences of the Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna of Weipa, Cape York Peninsula

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Habitat Preferences of the Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna of Weipa, Cape York Peninsula Habitat preferences of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Weipa, Cape York Peninsula Thesis submitted by Alexander J. THOMAS BSc, PGDip in Oct 2004 Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given. A J Thomas October 2004 STATEMENT OF ACCESS I, the undersigned, author of this work, understand that James Cook University will make this thesis available for use within the University Library and, via the Australian Digital Theses network, for use elsewhere. I understand that, as an unpublished work, a thesis has significant protection under the Copyright Act and; I do not wish to place any further restriction on access to this work. _________________________ ______________ Signature Date ELECTRONIC COPY I, the undersigned, the author of this work, declare that the electronic copy of this thesis provided to the James Cook University Library is an accurate copy of the print thesis submitted, within the limits of the technology available. _________________________ ______________ Signature Date Contents Preface ............................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgments .......................................................................... 2 Abstract .......................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction .......................................................................... 7 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................ 7 1.2 Habitat preference .................................................................. 9 1.3 Anticipated fauna at Weipa .................................................. 21 1.4 The orebody at Weipa .......................................................... 25 1.5 The habitats of Weipa .......................................................... 27 1.6 The mine regions.................................................................. 33 1.7 Landscape effects ................................................................. 34 1.8 Seasonality ........................................................................... 39 1.9 Aims, objectives and hypotheses ......................................... 46 2 Methods ............................................................................... 50 2.1 Study area............................................................................. 50 2.2 Survey design ....................................................................... 51 2.3 Survey sites .......................................................................... 53 2.4 Field schedules..................................................................... 58 2.5 Field methods....................................................................... 61 2.6 Data analysis ........................................................................ 66 3 Results ................................................................................. 74 3.1 Ore value.............................................................................. 74 3.2 Landscape position............................................................... 86 3.3 Creek, Swamp and Marine habitats.................................... 103 3.4 Andoom and Weipa regions............................................... 114 3.5 Seasonal habitat observations............................................. 122 3.6 Microhabitat factors .......................................................... 125 3.7 Species-specific accounts................................................... 126 3.8 Species sampling................................................................ 136 4 Discussion.......................................................................... 141 4.1 Principal conclusions.......................................................... 141 4.2 Contribution to ecological theory....................................... 144 4.3 Implications for practice..................................................... 148 4.4 Unresolved issues............................................................... 153 Bibliography............................................................................... 158 Appendices.................................................................................. 174 i List of Tables Table 1 - Number of vertebrates recorded in selected major habitats at Weipa, based on Winter and Atherton (1985)....... 23 Table 2 - Thirteen endangered, vulnerable, rare or poorly known vertebrates that are known or are likely to occur on the mine lease. ........................................................................ 25 Table 3 - Summary of the survey design factors, levels of each factor and number of replicates at each level. ........................ 52 Table 4 - Schedule of survey visits with dates of arrival and departure, and duration of each visit....................................... 59 Table 5 - Sequence of sites surveyed for each visit....................... 60 Table 6 - Daily site sampling schedule.......................................... 61 Table 7 – Structural habitat attributes sampled from all sites. ...... 65 Table 8 - Terminology used to explain numerical statistical probabilities ............................................................................ 73 Table 9 – Species diversity of woodland habitats above economic and uneconomic ore. .............................................. 74 Table 10 – Results of resampling procedure for comparisons of composition of observed terrestrial vertebrates in woodland habitats above economic and uneconomic ore showed no significant differences at any level of analysis..... 78 Table 11 - The top five terrestrial vertebrates which most characterised woodland habitat above economic ore. ............ 81 Table 12 - The top five terrestrial vertebrates which most characterised woodland habitat above uneconomic ore. ........ 82 Table 13 - The top five terrestrial vertebrates which most characterised the difference in woodland habitats above economic and uneconomic ore. .............................................. 82 Table 14 - Number of terrestrial vertebrates systematically and incidentally observed in woodland habitat sites economic ii and uneconomic, and the number of these with a significant difference in incidence.......................................... 83 Table 15 – Species diversity of woodland, ecotone and riparian habitats.................................................................................... 86 Table 16 – Results of resampling procedure for comparisons of composition of observed terrestrial vertebrates in woodland, ecotone and riparian habitats. ............................... 93 Table 17 - Number of species used in comparison of woodland, ecotone and riparian habitat sites, and the number of these with a significant observed difference in incidence................................................................................. 96 Table 18 - Taxa observed exclusively and significantly in one habitat type.............................................................................. 96 Table 19 – Six species accounted for the first 30% of the dissimilarity of riparian habitat............................................... 99 Table 20 – Five species accounted for the first 30% of the dissimilarity of ecotone habitat............................................. 100 Table 21 – Seven species accounted for the first 30% of the dissimilarity of woodland habitat. ........................................ 100 Table 22 - Species considered by Winter (1989) to be locally rare and restricted to woodland habitat, and the number of observations of these made in this survey. ........................... 101 Table 23 – Species diversity of creek, swamp and marine riparian habitats. ................................................................... 103 Table 24 – Results of resampling procedure for comparisons of composition of observed terrestrial vertebrates in creek, swamp and marine riparian habitats. .................................... 107 Table 25 - Number of species used in comparison of creek, swamp and marine riparian habitat sites and with a significant habitat preference................................................ 110 iii Table 26 - Number of species by class which were observed (significantly) for each permutation of habitat preference among creek, swamp and marine habitat sites...................... 110 Table 27 – Five species accounted for the first 30% of the dissimilarity of riparian creek habitat................................... 112 Table 28 – Five species accounted for the first 30% of the dissimilarity of riparian swamp habitat. ............................... 113 Table 29 – Five species accounted for the first 30% of the dissimilarity of riparian marine habitat................................. 113 Table 30 - Species diversity of the woodland habitats of the Andoom and Weipa regions. ................................................ 114 Table 31 – Results of resampling procedure for comparisons of composition of observed terrestrial vertebrates in woodland habitats from Andoom and Weipa regions show no significant differences at any level of analysis................ 116 Table 32 - Number of species observed (significantly) between the Andoom and Weipa
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