In September 2007, PPBio Australasia began to plan a PPBio research grid at Lake Broadwater Conservation Park. Lake Broadwater is situated approximately 30km southwest of Dalby and is home to 450 plant species, 240 bird species and numerous native marsupials and reptiles.
This project will establish an International Long-term Ecological Research (ILTER) Site in a semi-arid central QLD landscape in the Dalby Shire. Initially we will examine mesoscale vegetation patterns, using quantitative vegetation assessment protocols at 19 one hectare plots placed in a randomized block design (placed systematically throughout the Lake Broadwater Conservation Park - see figure 1). Secondly we will take soil samples within each plot and examine the relationships between vegetation assemblages and soil properties. Thirdly we will place hydrology wells to measure water availability for the vegetation in this arid ecosystem. The 19 one hectare plots will be permanently marked and all woody stems > 1cm in diameter will be tagged and identified. These plots will be established as Long-Term Ecological Research Sites and will be incorporated into a Program for Planned Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (PPBio Australasia). PPBio is an international program designed to examine the impacts of anthropogenic changes to the global landscape including biodiversity response and adaptation to climate change (Hero et al. 2009). This is the first quantitative study of mesoscale vegetation patterns in the Dalby region.
The project will also include the first mesoscale measurements of water hydrology ? critical for understanding the relationships between water table depth and vegetation in arid ecosystems. It establishes 19 permanent 1 hectare plots at Lake Broadwater designed for multidisciplinary research purposes. The study area is in the subtropical, Brigalow Belt bioregion, and includes the threatened Regional Ecosystem (Brigalow, Acacia harpophylla). This project will expand our research capability by establishing a new PPBio grid including 19 x 1ha permanent plots. These plots are designed for undertaking long-term integrated ecosystem process research and would be suitable for many research projects. The plots will be established before Cane Toad invasion (other areas nearby have already been invaded), providing a unique opportunity for comparing their impacts of the central semi-arid ecosystems. The vegetation will be permanently tagged (all woody stems >1cm DBH) providing baseline information for ecosystem condition assessment of and baseline information for a continuing project focusing on climate change adaptation research. The modular design of the grid will also enable additional plots to be established at other sites in the bio-region to address the impacts of land use changes and habitat transformation at the landscape level to assess the importance of remnant habitats such as Lake Broadwater.
We are currently looking for funding for this component of the PPBio project.
