Wetlands Project-Hypothesis 7-Macquarie Groundcover Vegetation

The study area is the Macquarie Marshes wetlands (including the Macquarie watercourses) located approximately 180 kms north-west of Dubbo in northwest NSW. This was a study as part of the Integrated Monitoring of Environmental Flows Project (IMEF). 

IMEF was a NSW wide scientific program established in 1998.  IMEF provided ecological monitoring in relation to environmental flow rules.  This in turn improved our knowledge of biodiversity and ecosystem processes in rivers and wetlands.  The aim of this project was to establish relationships between wetland water regimes (flooding and drying cycles) and the diversity and abundance of wetland plants. The survey documents the distribution and percentage cover, and abundance (no. individuals per quadrat) of vegetation species and non-plant cover along permanent 100 m transects using a 5 m x 5 m quadrat at 10 m intervals in the Macquarie Marshes.

Transects were marked using permanent posts and a 100m tape measure was used to position quadrats at 10 m intervals along the transect.

The taxonomy (including genus and species) and exotic/native status, and functional groups (based on habitat and life history descriptions) has been checked against Plants of Western NSW (Cunningham et al. (1981)).

Over the course of the monitoring the team members undertaking the vegetation surveys varied largely. Broadly, there were three main monitoring periods, however: 2000 (Renee Kidson as lead). 2001-2006 (Chris Knight as lead) and 2008-2010 (Patrick Driver as lead).

Transects possibly moved slightly between the survey periods, mostly because of some lost site information but notably at Terrigal between the Kidson and Knight phases where the transect was moved 90 degrees to the original direction, ostensibly to be perpendicular with the channel as per the original method intent which was “At each site, a single fixed transect was placed perpendicularly to the stream or channel. 
Each transect is 100 m long and sampled at 10 m intervals. At each 10 m interval, a 5 m x 5 m quadrat is centred. This was some distance away at some floodplain and RRG sites. This is one variation within the methods described at:

There were many blanks in Chris Knight’s field sheets which he advised meant zero, not no data, so analysis needs to know that might be an issue. I (PD) think we got this sorted correctly.

Dr Bruce Chessman lead the development of the field methods via a broad set of criteria were communicated at the state level. However, each valley lead developed their own set of methods that they saw suitable to the landscape and resources. For the Macquarie this was originally Renee Kidson (see Kidson et al 2012 analyses on year 2000 data). A balanced representation of site types was usually sought, and also some iconic sites. For example, the private Ramsar site Wilgara was later included by Patrick Driver. All sites required landholder approval and reasonable wet weather access.

Note: Data has complex issues that the data custodian can advise on.  It would be advised and advantageous to collaborate with the custodian (Patrick.driver@dpie.nsw.gov.au  in the analysis of this data.



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Tags: BIODIVERSITY, DCCEEW - Water, DCCEEW - Water Science, Ecosystem processes, FAUNA, SURFACE WATER, VEGETATION, Water quality
Organization: NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water