Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01713:body:0:p23
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01713
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 134788–137778

A greater understanding about water mouse patterns of occurrence, response to prolonged inundation and other dynamic perturbations, population dynamics and dispersal, and detectability is required before these areas can be classed as unoccupied or unsuitable.
Areas supporting recovery
Unobstructed areas that are landward of occupied and potential water mouse habitat may be critical for sustaining and supporting the recovery of the national water mouse population in the future as sea levels rise and coastal ecosystems migrate inland (see Section 4.2).
The water mouse is known to decline in areas adjacent to development (Section 4.1). A development-free buffer zone of at least 200 m is required around water mouse habitat at locations under pressure (Section 4.12) to mitigate against declines. A larger buffer zone is required on the landward side in locations that are predicted to be under pressure in the future (Section 5.2.2) as sea levels rise and coastal habitats migrate inland with climate change (Traill et al. 2011). The required buffer distance will depend on terrain and sea-level rise predictions; it could be several kilometres on flat coastal plains.
Population connectivity is important for water mouse persistence, with genetic resilience known to have declined in at least one isolated location (Benfer et al. 2014). Intact coastal areas, with  one or more of the environmental attributes that are required for an area to be occupied (Section 3.4), which are not currently occupied, or that have very low water mouse detectability (e.g. Laird Point on Curtis Island: ConocoPhillips 2020) may support dispersing individuals (Section 3.8) and be important for maintaining connectivity and genetic resilience at locations under pressure. These important areas are likely to:
    * Occur between areas of known or potential habitat,
    * Provide vegetation cover (Section 4.5) and temporary shelter resources (Section 3.5) to protect dispersing individuals from predation (Van Dyck 1996), and
    * Provide sufficient food resources (Section 3.6) to sustain the high metabolic requirements of the water mouse (Van Dyck 1996) during dispersal.
Tropical locations recently impacted by a significant natural perturbation (mangrove dieback, storm surge, extreme wet season flood – see Sections 4.3 and 4.4) may be important for sustaining, and supporting the stabilisation of the national water mouse population in the future as these locations recover and water mice from adjacent or nearby refuge habitats re-colonise. Due to the dynamic nature of natural perturbations in tropical regions, adjacent refuge areas may also be impacted at a future time and the original impacted location may then become the refuge population. This highlights how variable the occurrence of water mouse populations may be in tropical locations and emphasises the potential importance of impacted areas as future refuge locations to support the stabilisation and recovery of this species.