NOVEMBER 2011 SINOSTEEL MIDWEST CORPORATION WELD RANGE HAUL ROAD SHORT RANGE ENDEMIC SURVEY This page has been left blank intentionally SINOSTEEL MIDWEST CORPORATION WELD RANGE HAUL ROAD SHORT RANGE ENDEMIC INVERTEBRATE SURVEY Sinosteel Midwest Corporaton Weld Range Haul Road Short Range Endemic Invertebrate Survey Document Status Approved for Issue Rev Author Reviewer/s Date Name Distributed To Date A L. Quinn 1 N. Dight M. Davis 4/11/11 M. Davis W. Ennor 4/11/11 2 N. Dight M. Davis 22/11/1 M. Davis W. Ennor 24/11/11 ecologia Environment (2011). Reproduction of this report in whole or in part by electronic, mechanical or chemical means including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, in any language, is strictly prohibited without the express approval of Sinosteel Midwest Corporation and/or ecologia Environment. Restrictions on Use This report has been prepared specifically for Sinosteel Midwest Corporation. Neither the report nor its contents may be referred to or quoted in any statement, study, report, application, prospectus, loan, or other agreement document, without the express approval of Sinosteel Midwest Corporation and/or ecologia Environment. ecologia Environment 1025 Wellington Street WEST PERTH WA 6005 Phone: 08 9322 1944 Fax: 08 9322 1599 Email: [email protected] November 2011 i Sinosteel Midwest Corporaton Weld Range Haul Road Short Range Endemic Invertebrate Survey TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................................VI 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................1 1.1 PROJECT OVERVIEW..................................................................................................................1 1.2 LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................3 1.3 SURVEY OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................3 1.4 SHORT RANGE ENDEMIC FAUNA: A REVIEW ............................................................................4 2 BIOPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT............................................................................................9 2.1 CLIMATE ....................................................................................................................................9 2.2 BIOGEOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 10 2.3 VEGETATION .......................................................................................................................... 10 2.4 LAND SYSTEMS....................................................................................................................... 13 3 METHODS ....................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND DATABASE SEARCHES .................................................................. 17 3.2 SURVEY TIMING ..................................................................................................................... 17 3.3 SITE SELECTION ...................................................................................................................... 17 3.4 SAMPLING METHODS............................................................................................................. 20 3.5 SRE STATUS ............................................................................................................................ 22 3.6 DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................... 22 4 RESULTS.......................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 DATABASE AND LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................... 23 4.2 SURVEY RESULTS.................................................................................................................... 24 4.3 SPECIMENS COLLECTED ......................................................................................................... 29 4.4 SURVEY ADEQUACY................................................................................................................ 35 4.5 SURVEY LIMITATIONS............................................................................................................. 36 5 DISCUSSION.................................................................................................................... 37 6 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 41 November 2011 ii Sinosteel Midwest Corporaton Weld Range Haul Road Short Range Endemic Invertebrate Survey 7 STUDY TEAM................................................................................................................... 43 8 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................... 45 TABLES Table 2.1 – Climate Summary of Meekatharra (1950‐2011)....................................................................9 Table 2.2 – Recorded Rainfall at Meektharra Preceeding Survey ............................................................9 Table 2.3 – Vegetation Assoiations of the Project Area........................................................................ 11 Table 2.4 – Land Systems of the Project Area ....................................................................................... 14 Table 3.1 – Refferenced ecologia Invertebrate Surveys........................................................................ 17 Table 3.2 – Summary of Survey Effort................................................................................................... 18 Table 3.3 – Taxonomic Experts used to Identify Potential SRE Taxa Found During the Survey............ 21 Table 3.4 – ecologia Staff Involved with Survey.................................................................................... 22 Table 4.1 – DEC Naturemap Database Results of Rare, Threatened, and Conservation significant Invertebrate Species Likely to occur in the Mid West and Wheatbelt ............................. 23 Table 4.2 – Summary of Specimens Collected....................................................................................... 27 Table 4.4 – Mean estimates of total species richness of the SRE assemblage based on 100 randomisations ................................................................................................................. 36 Table 5.1 – Summary of SRE Specimens Collected and Significance of Impact..................................... 39 FIGURES Figure 1.1 – Location of the Project Area.................................................................................................2 Figure 2.1 – Western Murchison Subregions and Surrounds (Based On IBRA Version 6.1 Thackway and Cresswell 1995)................................................................................................................. 10 Figure 2.2 – Vegetation Associations of the Project Area..................................................................... 12 Figure 2.3 – Land Sytems of the Project Area ....................................................................................... 16 Figure 3.1 – Location of Survey Sites..................................................................................................... 19 Figure 3.2 – Example fo Wet Pitfall Traps ............................................................................................. 20 Figure 3.3 – Examples of the Leaf Litter Reducer and Tullgren Funnels ............................................... 21 Figure 4.1 – Abundance Histogram of Collected Species...................................................................... 25 Figure 4.2 – Species Accumulation Curve.............................................................................................. 35 November 2011 iii Sinosteel Midwest Corporaton Weld Range Haul Road Short Range Endemic Invertebrate Survey APPENDICES Appendix A Site Descriptions ............................................................................................................... 48 Appendix B Database and Literature Results Table ............................................................................. 64 November 2011 iv Sinosteel Midwest Corporaton Weld Range Haul Road Short Range Endemic Invertebrate Survey ACRONYMS List all acronyms used in the report here. Format alphabetically as follows: DEC Department of Environment and Conservation EPA Environmental Protection Authority EPBC Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1950 SRE Short Range Endemic WAM Western Australian Museum SMC Sinosteel Midwest Corporation November 2011 v Sinosteel Midwest Corporaton Weld Range Haul Road Short Range Endemic Invertebrate Survey EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sinosteel Midwest Corporation (SMC) is seeking approvals for the developments supporting their proposed Weld Range Mining Operation in the Midwest region of Western Australia. SMC intends to build a haul road approximately 20 km in length as part of the infrastructure developments at Weld Range, which is located approximately 90 km west of Meekatharra.