TY  - JOUR
A1  - Cox, Stephen J.
A1  - Sivertsen, Dominic P.
A1  - Bedward, Michael
T1  - Clearing of native woody vegetation in the New South Wales northern wheatbelt : extent, rate of loss and implications for biodiversity conservation
T2  - Cunninghamia : a journal of plant ecology for eastern Australia
N2  - Clearing of native woody vegetation in the New South Wales northern wheatbelt was mapped for the period 1985–2000. The study area comprises the Moree 1:250,000 scale map sheet and portions of adjacent map sheets. Unpublished draft mapping of native woody vegetation types, based on 1985 aerial photography and a large set of floristic data from field surveys, was used as a baseline for this study. Mapping of clearing was carried out by intensive visual interpretation of Landsat TM satellite imagery. Systematic validation, which compared the satellite interpretation to low-level aerial photography at randomly allocated point locations, showed that the method was highly accurate in detecting vegetation clearing including in the open woodlands and shrublands that characterise much of the study area. Comparisons with previously published mapping of statewide clearing patterns, based on an automated classification of Landsat TM imagery, showed that our intensive visual interpretation detected substantially more clearing. Average annual clearing rates were 8 times higher that those derived from the previous mapping.
Results of the study show that substantial clearing of native woody vegetation is continuing in the northern wheatbelt. Over 110,000 ha of native woody vegetation were cleared between 1985 and 2000. Clearing rates were highest in the four year monitoring period that preceded the introduction of the Native Vegetation Conservation Act. The subsequent two year monitoring period saw substantially lower clearing rates, though further monitoring is needed to determine if this trend will continue. An analysis of spatial patterns highlighted continued high rates of loss in the most depleted parts of the study area. Results for individual vegetation types indicate that regrowth open shrublands and woodlands and Coolabah (Eucalyptus coolabah) dominated woodlands were the most heavily cleared.
Y1  - 2001
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/36804
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-368041
SN  - 0727-9620
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
SP  - 101
EP  - 155
ER  -