Habitat Restoration - Class 5

To a certain degree everything that you plan to do with a site will depend upon what is already there.

Site assessment
What is present at the site e.g. flora/fauna, introduced/indigenous, species/relative amounts, soils
What is the value of these things e.g. habitat
What is the desired outcome e.g. community distribution


What is present?
To determine what is present at a site you need to undertake some sort of survey.
For flora and fauna there are 2 aspects that need to be considered the species present and the size of the population

Habitat restoration aims to return an area to a pre-existing state. How to determine that state especially the vegetation

Physical conditions
Altitude, aspect, moisture, soil type.
Historical records
Soil types
Scattered remnants

Flora
There are a number of ways to determine the species that are present

-a complete flora survey, requires high level of skills in plant identification, is time consuming and needs to be conducted at different times of the year.

-transect, a line along which you identify the plants. Best used to give an indication of vegetation changes over a large distance.

-quadrats,
Technically a four sided area that defines a sampling area of constant size that enables statistical comparison (within the one site or between sites).
Often squares or rectangles though circles of set diameter may be used.
Shape and size should be constant in a given survey area.
Size of quadrat will depend upon the site, it should be located within relatively uniform vegetation.
May be placed along a transect line, at random, or within visually assessed vegetation type
Pegs at each corner are usually used to mark four sided quadrats. A single peg (generally NW corner in Vic.) marks permanent quadrats and the other corners are relocated with a compass and measure. Circular quadrats are marked in the centre.
Requires a high level of plant identification skills and is time consuming.
Provides detailed information that may be analyzed statistically for the selected area of vegetation though may not provide enough information for developing management strategies for the whole site.

-random walk, gives a good overview of vegetation
Records the majority of species at the site at that time of year.
Is relatively quick
May be used for statistical comparisons if carried out properly. Often random walks are wanderings which can be more useful and less time consuming (though can not be used for statistical analysis.

Frequency or importance of the species in an area is also important information. For some areas it may be possible to record the number of individuals present (this can be particularly important if you are focusing on a single species). A measure of cover/abundance is most commonly recorded for each species along with bare ground, mosses, lichens, exposed rock or water. The height of different vegetation layers is also included. (Transect line may be used to represent this.)
Cover/abundance is assessed as the projected foliage cover expressed as a percent of the area being assessed. There are a number of cover/abundance scales. Different c/a scales have different emphasis or different degrees of finesse.

Cover abundance can be used for initial assessment and for ongoing monitoring.


Braun-Blanquet C/A Scale
5 75-100% cover
4 50-75% cover
3 25-50% cover
2 5-25% cover
1 <5% cover, numerous individuals
+ <5% cover, few individuals

Management Units/Areas/Zones
Divides area into management zones that can be closely aligned to management or restoration techniques.
e.g. planting beds, mowing, regeneration etc.
Zones may be based on permanent physical features e.g. paths, soil types, plant community distribution, quadrats etc. These zones are fixed and allow comparison over time.
Zones may be based on vegetation quality e.g. good, intermediate and poor. These zones will change over time as works progress. Assessment will be based on changes in size of each zone.



Fauna
Fauna survey is often a more complex undertaking.
May be direct observation which may include spotlighting, trapping, listening, smelling
Infer from other observations e.g. tracks, scats, diggings/scratchings.
Some fauna survey work will require permits e.g. mammal trapping.
Working out population size can be complex and may vary depending upon the time of year.

Once you have determined what is there and what you are aiming for you need to consider changed circumstances that may alter your desired end-point.
Restrictive conditions - e.g. changed soil type or drainage patterns, pollutants, increased nutrients
Habitat quality, fauna needs