Methodology for surveying and mapping regional ecosystems and vegetation communities in Queensland Version 5.1 #31824 | 0320 | v5.1 Prepared by: V.J. Neldner, B.A. Wilson, H.A. Dillewaard, T.S. Ryan, D.W. Butler, W.J.F. McDonald, E.P. Addicott and C.N. Appelman Queensland Herbarium, Science and Technology Division Department of Environment and Science PO Box 5078 Brisbane QLD 4001 © The State of Queensland (Department of Environment and Science) The Queensland Government supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of its information. The copyright in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY) licence. Under this licence you are free, without having to seek permission from the department, to use this publication in accordance with the licence terms. You must keep intact the copyright notice and attribute the State of Queensland, Department of Environment and Science as the source of the publication. For more information on this licence visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en ISBN 1-9209280-2-2 Disclaimer This document has been prepared with all due diligence and care, based on the best available information at the time of publication. The department holds no responsibility for any errors or omissions within this document. Any decisions made by other parties based on this document are solely the responsibility of those parties. Information contained in this document is from a number of sources and, as such, does not necessarily represent government or departmental policy. If you need to access this document in a language other than English, please call the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 and ask them to telephone Library Services on +61 7 3170 5725 Citation This work may be cited as: Neldner, V.J., Wilson, B.A., Dillewaard, H.A., Ryan, T.S., Butler, D.W., McDonald, W.J.F, Addicott, E.P. and Appelman, C.N. (2020) Methodology for survey and mapping of regional ecosystems and vegetation communities in Queensland. Version 5.1. Updated March 2020. Queensland Herbarium, Queensland Department of Environment and Science, Brisbane. Cover image: Newcastelia spp. and Scaevola spp. shrubs on sand dunes near Ethabuka, RE 5.6.5a, Channel Country bioregion (V.J. Neldner, Queensland Herbarium, Queensland Government) March 2020 2 Methodology for surveying and mapping regional ecosystems and vegetation communities in Queensland | Version 5.1 Acknowledgements This report is the combined effort of Queensland Herbarium staff involved in the vegetation communities and regional ecosystem survey, mapping and assessment program over the past 40 years. Contributing, current and former Queensland Herbarium staff include: Arnon Accad, Eda Addicott, Chris Appelman, Julie Bahr, Lynne Bailey*, Birte Balle-Hosking, Peter Bannink, George Batianoff*, Darryl Baumgartner, Tony Bean, Greg Beeston, Ron Booth, Adrian Borsboom, Des Boyland, Joy Brushe, Don Butler, Helen Cartan, John Clarkson, Ben Collyer, Nick Cuff, Russell Cumming, Andrew Daniel, Lori Dean, Hans Dillewaard, Ralph Dowling, Lorraine Tan (nee Durrington), Mark Edginton, Brad Ellis, James Elsol, Teresa Eyre, Russell Fairfax, Sam Farina, Rod Fensham, Dan Ferguson, Andrew Franks, Ian Fox, Katherine Glanville, Ashleigh Gorring, Leigh Gould, Paul Grimshaw, Gordon Guymer, Val Halbert, David Halford, Luke Hogan, James Holman, Troy Honeman, Merrilyn Hosking, Shannon Hudson, Roger Jaensch, Bob Johnson*, Derek Johnson, Peter Johnson, Kerstin Jones, Chris Kahler, Evanthia Karpouzli, Jack Kelley, Annie Kelly, Dan Kelman, Jeanette Kemp, Jacob Kirk, Andrew Kirkwood, Melinda Laidlaw, Alison Lawrence, Jiaorong Li, Rosemary Lovatt, Bill McDonald, John McDonald, Mike Mathieson, Damian Milne, Chris Mitchell, John Neldner, Mark Newton, Michael Ngugi, Rosemary Niehus, Shelley Novello, Les Pedley*, Chris Pennay, Sandy Pollock, Robbie Price, Rosemary Purdie, Dale Richter, Tim Ryan, Paul Sattler, Jessica Scanlon*, Miriam Schmeider, Christine Shewell, Matt Skett, Geoff Smith, Kym Sparshott, Kathy Stephens, Trevor Stanley, Peter Taylor*, Megan Thomas, Simon Thompson, John Thompson, Dan Tindall, Megan Turner, Gerry Turpin, Kaori van Baalen, Melanie Venz, Alicia Wain, Jian Wang, Hayley Warlich, Bruce Wilson, Gary Wilson and Peter Young. * Deceased Thanks to Ben Harms, Department of Environment and Science, Soils and Land Resources, and Andrew Biggs, Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Resource Assessment, for assistance in updating the soils nomenclature in Tables 21–23. Thanks also to Linda Skopp, DES Corporate Communications, for checking and greatly improving the layout and readibility of the document. 3 Contents Acknowledgements 3 1. Introduction 7 1.1 Purpose of this document . 7 1.2 Version history . 7 1.3 Background . 8 2. Classification 11 2.1 The distinction between mapping and classification of site data . .11 2.2 Vegetation classification. .14 2.3 Regional ecosystem classification. 16 2.4 Scale. .23 3. Mapping 27 3.1 Overview . .27 3.2 Pre-clearing vegetation. 27 3.3 Remnant vegetation cover . .30 3.4 Remnant regional ecosystem . .33 3.5 Incorporation of mapping from third parties. 34 3.6 Monitoring remnant regional ecosystem and vegetation extent . .34 3.7 Map versions . .34 3.8 Regional ecosystem data sources. 35 3.9 Mapping scale and minimum size depicted . .35 3.10 Accuracy. 36 3.11 Description of regional ecosystem and vegetation units . .39 4 Field survey and collection of site data 43 4.1 Types of sites used in survey and mapping. .43 4.2 Opportunistic collections and records . .45 4.3 Site size . .46 4.4 Site location. 46 4.5 Site density . .47 5 References 49 Appendix 1 Preferred survey and mapping process 61 A1.1 Project scoping and planning . .61 A1.2 Gathering existing data. 62 A1.3 Reconnaissance phase. 62 A1.4 Mapping . 62 A1.5 Field work . .63 A1.6 Finalising mapping . .63 A1.7 Final checking. 63 A1.8 Generating map unit descriptions. 64 A1.9 Report production. 64 Appendix 2 CORVEG site data collection method 65 4 Methodology for surveying and mapping regional ecosystems and vegetation communities in Queensland | Version 5.1 A2.1 Recommended requirements . .65 A2.2 Environmental data. 65 A2.3 Species data. 74 A2.4 Methods for estimating abundance. 78 A2.5 Stratifying vegetation layers at a site. .81 A2.6 Additional BioCondition attributes . 85 A2.7 Landscape descriptor codes. 85 A2.8 Blank CORVEG proforma . 101 Appendix 3 Changing vegetation: principles and examples 108 Appendix 4 Examples of heterogeneous polygons 111 A4.1 Discrete photo-patterns . 111 A4.2 No discrete photo-patterns . 112 A4.3 Most vegetation cleared on aerial photographs . 112 Appendix 5 Guidelines for defining new regional ecosystem or vegetation community 113 A5.1 New regional ecosystem . 113 A5.2 New vegetation community . 114 Appendix 6 Glossary 116 Appendix 7 Completed CORVEG proforma 123 Appendix 8 Defining and mapping high-value regrowth 128 Appendix 9 Rainforest site data collection 130 A9.1 Introduction. 130 A9.2 Data collection overview. 130 A9.3 Data collection in secondary rainforest sites (under review) . 130 A9.4 Data collection in tertiary rainforest sites . 131 Appendix 10 CORVEG proforma for rainforests 134 5 List of tables Table 1: Summary of key components of vegetation classification and mapping systems used by major Australian forest management agencies . .10 Table 2: Number of classification units from various Queensland studies . .15 Table 3 Labelling convention for vegetation communities and proposed new regional ecosystems. 18 Table 4 Recommended data resolution for various map scales. 23 Table 5 Class of land resource surveys to scale and recommended uses . .24 Table 6 Example of map sheet legend . 42 Table 7 Standard symbols in map unit vegetation label or regional ecosystem description . .42 Table 8 Summary of quaternary site attributes . 45 Table 9 Recommended minimum ground observation density for land surveys at various scales . .48 Table 10 CORVEG sites minimum abundance measures. 66 Table 11 CORVEG community extent codes. 68 Table 12 CORVEG community area codes. 68 Table 13 CORVEG landform morphological type codes . 69 Table 14 CORVEG proportion and age of disturbance codes . .72 Table 15 CORVEG fire height codes . .73 Table 16 CORVEG erosion type and severity codes. 73 Table 17 CORVEG leaf size categories for rainforest trees. .77 Table 18 Summary of rules for determining layers/strata in vegetation . 84 Table 19 CORVEG broad soil colour and texture codes. 85 Table 20 CORVEG soil type codes—alphabetical listing . 86 Table 21 CORVEG soil type codes . .87 Table 22 CORVEG geology codes. 88 Table 23 CORVEG geology codes—alphabetical listing . 89 Table 24 CORVEG types of erosional landform patterns by slope and relief class codes. 90 Table 25 CORVEG landform pattern description codes. 90 Table 26 CORVEG landform element codes. 94 Table 27 CORVEG plant life forms . 97 Table 28 Structural formation classes . 98 Table 29 Field key to structural types of Australian rainforest vegetation. 99 Table 30 Structure class thresholds to be used for regional ecosystems where no benchmarks or technical descriptions are available. 128 List of figures Figure 1 Summary of vegetation survey and mapping processes used in Australia . .13 Figure 2 Example of regional ecosystem classification . 18 Figure 3 Flowchart showing assessment sequence for mapping vegetation cover. 31 Figure 4 Example of polygon labels . .36 Figure 5 Queensland Herbarium monitoring site tag. .67 6 Methodology for surveying and mapping