New South Wales Vegetation Classification & Assessment Database Project

The aim of this project is to classify and assess the threat and conservation status the plant communities that comprise the vegetation of NSW and incorporate this information onto a database. It is anticipated that there will be between 1200 and 1500 plant communities listed for NSW. So far 213 plant communities have been classified in the eight bioregions that comprise the NSW Western Plains as Version 1 of the NSWVCA database (Benson et al. 2006). Another 97 communities have been classified for the NSW South-western Slopes Bioregion to be published as part of Version 2 of the NSWVCA database (Benson submitted 2008). The NSW Western Plains plant community data has been updated in Version 2 of the database. Work is continuing on the NSW North Western Slopes over the next two years. Future work hopes to cover the NSW Tablelands to complete coverage of the eight western Catchment Management Authorities in NSW (see the attached NSWVCA progress figure).

The NSWVCA classification and assessment are based on published and unpublished data on vegetation “type”. This includes spatial data in vegetation maps and the description of map units, floristic classification derived from analysis of plot data, descriptions of vegetation in reports or papers and expert advice (see flow diagram). Extensive field checking helps with the collation of this disparate information. Quantitative analyses are favoured where they are available but sound quantitative data is patchy in inland regions of NSW but these data are abundant on the coast and tablelands. The classification aims to list plant communities at the 'plant association' level that takes into account significant canopy and understorey floristic variation. This project is similar to the Terrestrial Classification of the Vegetation of the United States undertaken by The Nature Conservancy in 1998.

Each plant community is recorded in an MS Access 2003 database that contains 90 fields of information, 47 Tables and 64 forms. The fields are described in Appendix A in Benson (2006) that is provided in the Database Description file on this web site. The threat criteria used to assess the risk of each listed plant community are included in Appendix B of Benson (2006) and in the file named Threat Criteria on this web site.

These NSWVCA database fields include: lists of characteristic species in three strata, vegetation structure, common name, scientific name, general description, photographs, distribution by bioregions, local government area and other regions, soils and substrate, list of threatening processes, comments on condition, fire regimes if known, a IUCN-like threat code using criteria about remaining extent and condition, a protected area code based on relative extent protected in reserves or secure property agreements.

The NSWVCA database contains 20 reports for listing plant communities by geographical regions or under broader vegetation classifications. PDF reports contain images while MS Word reports contain text only. The query mode in the full version of the database facilitates a range of queries of combinations of the 90 fields in the database.

Results are being published in refereed papers and placed on this web site to attract use and feedback of the NSWVCA scheme. Major changes to the classification are published on this web site.

The results of this project are pertinent to:

site assessment for property planning and environmental impact assessment
setting priorities in regional planning
selecting new conservation reserves and private property conservation agreements
monitoring progress in protecting biodiversity
managing different types of vegetation
public education about the vegetation of NSW

An overview of the vegetation of NSW can be gleaned from ‘Setting the Scene: the native vegetation of New South Wales’ (859 Kb pdf file)

Progress of the NSW Vegetation Classification and Assessment Project (NSWVCA) June 2008

Introduction Paper and the Vegetation of the NSW Western Plains

Two papers (Benson 2006 and Benson et al. 2006) have been published in the Botanic Gardens Trust's ecological journal Cunninghamia Volume 9(3) in June 2006. The first paper describes vegetation classification generally and the methods and parameters applied in the project. The second paper classifies and assesses the protected area and threat status of 213 plant communities in the NSW Western Plains covering 57% of NSW including the semi-arid and arid regions of the State (see the image of NSW divided into four sections). Full descriptions of the 213 plant communities of the NSW Western Plains are included in a document 640 A4 pages long on the CD accompanying this paper. Other PDF reports from the database covering CMA areas and bioregions are on the CD accompanying the Cunninghamia 9(3) journal publication. The CD also contains a read only version of the NSWVCA NSW Western Plains database that allows the user to generate reports. The publication can be obtained from the Ecology Section, Botanic Gardens Trust, Mrs Macquaries Rd, Sydney NSW 2000, or by emailing NSWVCA@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au.
A third NSWVCA paper is in review (Benson submitted), It covers the vegetation in the NSW South-western Slopes Bioregion which is a mainly cleared and fragmented farming region of NSW making up a further 10% of NSW. This paper and its accompany CD will contain Version 2 of the NSWVCA database. It updates data for the NSW Western Plains plant communities as well as adding at least 97 plant communities to the database from the NSW SW Slopes. The description of the 135 plant communities in the NSW South-western Slopes Bioregion is 400 A4 pages long;
As of June 2008, over 370 references on vegetation have been incorporated into the NSWVCA bibliography in the NSWVCA database. There has been over 30000 km of field traverse and over 800 vegetation field checks during which plant species, a range of abiotic features and a GPS reading are recorded and photographs are taken
A photographic collection of NSW Western Plains and NSW South-western Slopes Bioregion plant communities has been established at the Botanic Gardens Trust.

Threat and protected area status of the NSW Western Plains plant communities

Only 3.9% of the NSW Western Plains is represented in protected areas (public conservation reserves and secure long term property agreements) compared to 14% for the eastern half of NSW.
Only one of the eight Western Plains Bioregions has greater than 10% of its area in protected areas.
31 or 15% of the plant communities are not recorded from protected areas;
136 or 64% have less than 5% of their pre-European extent in protected areas.
Only 52 or 24% of the communities have greater than 10% of their original extent protected, thus meeting international guidelines for representation of ecological communities in protected areas.
71 or 33% of the plant communities are threatened, that is, judged as being ‘critically endangered’, ‘endangered’ or ‘vulnerable’.
This audit of the protected areas in western NSW demonstrates that the current protected area system is inadequate and that more conservation reserves and secure property agreements are required to attain minimum international thresholds for representation of landscapes in protected areas.
Threatening processes include clearing of woodlands and grasslands in central-western NSW; weed invasion on floodplains; unsustainable grazing by domestic stock and feral animals - particularly by goats on semi-arid and arid rocky ranges and rabbits on sandy rises in the Riverina; water draw off from rivers for irrigation preventing flooding of floodplains and threatening the floodplain communities; localised rises in salinity; and long term impacts of climate change on a range of key native plant species.

A summary of the status of NSW South-western Slopes plant communities will be posted when the third paper is published.

References

Benson, J.S. (2006) New South Wales Vegetation Classification and Assessment: Introduction - the classification, database, assessment of protected areas and threat status of plant communities. Cunninghamia 9(3): 331-382.
Benson, J.S., Allen, C., Togher, C. & Lemmon, J. (2006) New South Wales Vegetation Classification and Assessment: Part 1 Plant communities of the NSW Western Plains. Cunninghamia 9(3): 383-451.
Benson, J.S. (submitted) New South Wales Vegetation Classification and Assessment: Version 2: NSW South-western Slopes Bioregion and Update of NSW Western Plains (submitted to Cunninghamia).

Mallee