Science
- Evolutionary ecology research
- Australian rain forest community assembly
- Australian rain forest through time
- Ecology of Cumberland Plain Woodland
- Bicentenary Plant Diversity Program
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- Botany of Botany Bay
- Conservation genetics
- DNA studies of Elaeocarpaceae
- Ecology of Isopogon prostratus
- Floristic Lists of NSW
- Habitat fragmentation
- Lomatia (Proteaceae)
- Molecular phylogeny of the Australian Lauraceae
- Promiscuous Lomatia
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- Native plants of Sydney Harbour NP
- Newnes Plateau Shrub Swamps
- Next Generation Sequencing
- Nickel hyperaccumulation in Stackhousia
- NSW Vegetation Classification & Assessment Project
- Plants of the Newnes Plateau
- Plants, vegetation, landscape, country
- Phylogenetic relationships of Ceratopetalum
- Podocarpus elatus
- Rainforest conifer - Podocarpus elatus
- Speciation in Proteaceae
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- Scientific publications
Newnes Plateau Shrub SwampsVegetation and faunal interrelations with groundwater in montane peat swamps in the upper Blue MountainsDoug Benson - Senior Ecologist and Lotte von Richter - Technical Officer, Evolutionary Ecology Newnes Plateau Shrub Swamps are a series of low nutrient temperate montane peat swamps, at 1100 m elevation in the upper Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. They are listed as Endangered Ecological Communities under NSW and Commonwealth environmental protection legislation. Because of their unique flora we have been interested in the swamps for a number of years, and in 2012 we carried out transect-based vegetation studies in 10 of the main swamps. Analyses show a closely related group of swamps with expanses of permanently moist, gently sloping peatlands. Vegetation patterns are related to surface hydrology and subsurface topography, which determine local peat depth. While there is evidence that a group of the highest elevation swamps on the western side of the Plateau are more dependent on rainwater, the majority of swamps, particularly those in the Carne Creek catchment, and east and south of it, may be considered primarily groundwater dependent with a permanently high watertable maintained by groundwater aquifers. Associated with these swamps are a number of threatened groundwater dependent biota which are restricted to these swamps (plants - Boronia deanei subsp. deanei and Dillwynia stipulifera; giant dragonfly - Petalura gigantea, Blue Mountains water skink - Eulamprus leuraensis). In collaboration with giant dragonfly expert Ian Baird of the University of Western Sydney, we explored the importance of groundwater dependence to the listed rare biota. This association of dependence leaves the entire swamp ecosystem highly susceptible to threats from any loss of groundwater, the major current one being the impact of damage to the confining aquicludes, aquitards, aquifers and peat substrates as a result of subsidence associated with longwall coalmining. Other impacts may also result from changes to hydrology such as damming, mine waste water discharge, increased moisture competition from pine plantations, recreational motorbike and 4WD vehicle tracks and climate change. We conclude that if these groundwater dependent ecosystems do not receive protection from activities such as longwall mining subsidence, significant ecological damage is unlikely to be avoided or able to be mitigated even where environmental protection legislation applies. |
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