Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00045:body:0:p7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00045
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 17314–20228

landscapes of Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in permanently wet areas, such as along streams, drainage lines, valley edges and valley floors. The ecological community also occurs on slopes where soils are waterlogged (Slattery, 1998; Costin et al., 2000). The key to bog formation is a good supply of groundwater and an impeded drainage system that keeps the water table at or near the surface (Whinam et al., 2003). Under these conditions, the decomposition of organic materials is incomplete, eventually forming the peat that typically underlies the ecological community (Good, 1992).

The nationally described ecological community listed under the EPBC Act includes two distinct components of high mountain wetlands that are both restricted in area and typically occur together – bogs and fens. Although it is not always the dominant genus, the bogs component of the ecological community can usually be defined by the visual presence of Sphagnum spp. (absent or less obvious in fens and degraded wetlands), the most common of which is Sphagnum cristatum (Kirkpatrick, 1997). The fens are shallow, open water pools with or without emergent aquatic plants and are often near to, or surrounded by bogs.

The absorptive properties of Sphagnum spp. and the underlying peat regulate the lateral spread of moisture within the ecological community and ultimately, this defines its boundaries. Also, some patches of the ecological community are dominated by shrubs or Restionaceae spp., particularly where Sphagnum spp. are only a minor component, or where Sphagnum has been depleted or lost due to past or ongoing disturbance. In these cases, the site may still be considered to be part of this ecological community if other key species are dominant (see the list of key species in Table 1 from the Commonwealth Listing Advice on Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens) and a peat substratum is evident.

The full description of the ecological community is in the Commonwealth Listing Advice. Diagnostic keys to assist in identifying the ecological community on mainland Australia and Tasmania have been developed and included in the document 'Background information for the Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens National Recovery Plan'.

2.2 Flora

Characteristic Flora

In the Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens of the mainland Alps, there are several characteristic flora species: Sphagnum cristatum forming hummocks in bogs; Empodisma minus in bogs and associated fens; Carex gaudichaudiana typically dominating fens; Poa costiniana occurs on the margins of bogs or invading degraded sites (Hope et al. 2012). The other keystone bog species are shrubs, some of which only regenerate from seed after fire and others that regenerate by resprouting (Walsh and McDougall, 2004). These shrubs have varying recovery times after fire, and this combined with hydrology,