Fitzroy Falls Spiny Crayfish NSW DPI Fisheries 20150316

## **Abstract** 

This data and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment Programme by a third party and are represented here as originally supplied.



The Fitzroy Falls spiny crayfish (Euastacus dharawalus) is a large, rare species of Australian spiny crayfish endemic to a small location on the NSW Southern Highlands. They are a critically endangered species - http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/species-protection/conservation/what-current/critically/fitzroy-falls-spiny-crayfish. The methods used to create the predicted current distribution of Fitzroy Falls spiny crayfish are described fully in: NSW Department of Primary Industries (2015), NSW Fish Community Status 2015 - Final Report.

## **Purpose** 

The dataset has a number of primary functions including but not limited to;

\* spatially representing the status of fish communities at river reach scale across NSW

\* providing additional support to strategic planning frameworks to ensure they effectively integrate biodiversity considerations into planning and decision making processes

## **Dataset History** 

This data and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment Programme by a third party and are represented here as originally supplied.



All available records of the species were collated and assessed for accuracy. For current distribution, only records after 1 January 1994 were used. Within the framework of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric V2 surface hydrology network, the records were associated with attributes from the National Environmental Stream Attributes Database and River Styles&#xAE; geomorphology. The Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric V2 surface hydrology network (Geofabric) is a fully connected and directed stream network based a 9 second DEM. It allocates a unique stream segment number to each river reach in Australia. The Environmental Attributes Database is a set of lookup tables supplying attributes describing the natural and anthropogenic characteristics of the stream and catchment environment that was developed by the Australian National University (ANU) in 2011 and updated in 2012. The data is supplied as part of the supplementary Geofabric products which is associated with the 9 second DEM derived streams and the National Catchment Boundaries based on 250k scale stream network. 30 Stream variables were assessed for the modelling.

River Styles&#xAE; provides a high resolution categorical classification of river character within a nested hierarchy of criteria based on valley setting, channel planform, geomorphic units, and bed material. The NSW Office of Water compiled a spatial dataset of River Styles&#xAE; classifications for a large number of the waterways of NSW. From 65 River Style&#xAE; categories we generated two new fields representing Planform (34 categories) and Substratum (8 categories) for each stream segment. River Style&#xAE; planform and substratum categories were then assigned to each Geofabric segment.

MaxEnt 3.3.3 is a widely used species distribution modelling program that utilises presence records to generate probabilities of occurrence based on a suite of environmental variables quantified across the area of interest. It was used to model the current geographic distribution of each listed threatened freshwater aquatic species or population. We utilised logistic output to plot the predicted distribution of each species. This output equates to a probability that the species will be observed in each river reach, given the environmental conditions that exist there relative to the environmental conditions where the species is known to occur. For this mapping, above 33% probability was considered predicted presence. In addition, predicted separate populations were connected by manual interpretation. The predicted values for each river reach were converted from the Geofabric framework to the higher resolution 2013 NSW Strahler Stream Order Hydroline.

## **Dataset Citation** 

NSW Department of Primary Industries (2015) Fitzroy Falls Spiny Crayfish NSW DPI Fisheries 20150316. Bioregional Assessment Source Dataset. Viewed 18 June 2018, http://data.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/dataset/fe9241ad-79d6-43bb-922b-cb2fe86fff68.

Tags: New South Wales, Sydney Basin bioregion, biota
Organization: Bioregional Assessment Program