Habitat selection by two focal species; golden-tailed gecko and glossy black-cockatoo

[摘要] The APLNG EIS for the coal seam gas (CSG) fields and associated infrastructure of central and southern Queensland included the habitat of 99 species of animal of special conservation significance i.e. species that are listed as threatened or near‐threatened under relevant legislation. For 11 species, the study area was considered to be of high or very high importance. Two of these species, the golden‐tailed gecko (Strophurus taenicauda) and the glossy black‐cockatoo(Calyptorhynchus lathami), were chosen as the focus for detailed assessments to understand the potential impacts of CSG development. These two species use the landscape at widely divergent spatial scales. The intention in choosing species that differ in the scale at which the landscape is used was to cover as widely as possible the range of impacts of CSG development on animal species of conservation concern.Assessments of both species were undertaken during 2015 in the Surat Cumulative Management Area (CMA) of southern and central Queensland. The research involved desktop (assembling available records and carrying out bioclimatic modelling) and field‐based components for both species.We found that the golden‐tailed gecko is relatively widespread within the Surat CMA and it is, in places, a common arboreal gecko. It was located across patches of all sizes including in patches of small size (down to 1.11 ha). It occurred at high abundance in some of these patches. Although not a factor we knew of at the outset of our research, we found that another commonly occurring arboreal gecko the dubious dtella (Gehyra dubia) was negatively correlated with golden‐tailed gecko abundance. Small patches in particular showed a strongly negative association between the two species.When examining the abundance of the golden‐tailed gecko, the most important of the habitat variables we collected was the average basal area of trees. As this increased, especially above 22.8 cm, this species was more likely to be present. When we considered only the small patches, the main factors influencing presence and abundance of the golden‐tailed gecko were the average basal area of white cypress (Callitris glaucophylla) and grazing (neglible/absent). Taken together, these findings characterise the golden‐tailed gecko within the Surat CMA as a species that can occupy patches of all sizes if trees, especially white cypress, of sufficient basal area are presentand there is no or limited grazing. These results indicate that the golden‐tailed gecko has a tolerance of fragmentation.The glossy black‐cockatoo had a clumped distribution within the Surat CMA. Our bioclimatic model showed that most of the suitable habitat for the species occurs in the south‐east third of the studyarea with smaller areas in the central and northern regions. Our assessment of records indicates that there are 6 ‘hotspots’ of glossy black‐cockatoo occurrence within the study area. The majorityof these are centred on large areas of continuous forest, mostly national parks and state forests. During field surveys and while working in the Surat CMA we obtained very few recent records ofthe species. Although preliminary in nature, our results lead us to suggest that the glossy black cockatoo is scarce within extensive cleared tracts of the Surat CMA and that its patchy distributionis centred on large areas of suitable remnant (uncleared) habitat. The species is clearly capably of accessing small, relatively remote, patches of remnant vegetation in which to feed but does notappear to be resident within these.We developed a set of five management recommendations for the golden‐tailed gecko and seven recommendations for the glossy black‐cockatoo. For the gecko, we recommend the maintenance of small patches of woodland, especially those containing white cypress, and assisting movement between patches by ensuring the presence of trees and shrubs in the grassland matrix betweenpatches. For the cockatoo, we focus on prot...

[发布日期] 2016-05-31 [发布机构] CSIRO

[学科分类] 地球科学(综合)