Nature conservation of mallee lands in Australia

Selected Abstracts 92Z/00054 Natural and semi-natural plant communities of the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia J. Kubikova, in: Urban ecology, ed H. Sukopp & S. Hejny, (SPB Academic Publishing), 1990, pp 131-139. In the 498 km 2 of Prague and its suburbs, some 1% is natural deciduous forest, 0.8% thermophilons grassland/rocky steppe, 0.6% streamside vegetation, and 0.4% ond. Oligu- and mesohemerob vegetation thus makes up .8% of the city area. Phytosocinlogical analysis of individual sites is presented, and their floristic and conservation value noted. While a system of reserves has been set up, the fate of these small (few being >100ha), isolated areas of valuable plant community remains in doubt. -P.J.Jarvis

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92Z/00055 South African road reserves: valuable conservation areas? B.L. Dawson, in: Nature conservation 2: the role of corridors, ed D.A. Saunders & R.J. Hobbs, (Surrey Beatty), 1991, pp 119-130. Some South African road reserves do, in certain vegetation types, constitute valuable conservation areas, but this is more fortuitous than the result of any deliberate policy. The vegetation types where this is the case are those where the adjoining native vegetation has been largely transformed by agricultural or other human activities. -from Author 92Z/00056 Kibale Forest Game Corridor: man or wildlife? J. Baranga, in: Nature conservation 2: the role of corridors, ed D.A. Saunders & R. J. Hobbs, (Surrey Beatty), 1991, pp 371-375. The Kibale Forest Corridor Game Reserve lies between the Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) and Kibale Forest Reserve in Uganda. The Game Corridor was gazetted in 1926 to allow for the free movement of animals. Since the early 1970s forest resources have been depleted rapidly and encroachers have moved into the Game Corridor and settled. At the same time elephant Loxodonta africana numbers went from 3000 in 1973 to 500 in 1989 in the QENP. The Kibale Game Corridor should be retained as a conservation area and the trend of encroachment should be reserved. -from Author 92Z/00057 Natural r e m n a n t s and corridors in Greater Cape Town: their role in threatened plant conservation C . R . McDowell, A. B. Low & B. McKenzie, in: Nature conservation 2: the role of corridors, ed D.A. Saunders & R.J. Hobbs, (Surrey Beatty), 1991, pp 27-39. Cape Town is situated in the Cape Floral Kingdom, one of the world's richest in plant diversity and endemism. The remaining lowland vegetation around Cape Town comprises mainly acid Sand Plain Fynbos and alkaline dune Strandveld. Remnants and corridors within the former have the greatest concentration of Red Data plant species in Southern Africa. Fynbos is more sensitive than Strandvelt to human-related impacts. The status of selected Red Data species' habitats in the two systems is discussed with reference to. housing,, alien, vegetation, 'p.ark-scap.ing', fire, stock-grazing, pubhc ignorance and mappropnate planning decisions. -from Authors 92Z/00058 Re-establishment and maintenance of indigenous vegetation in South African road reserves R. L. Dawson & J. P. Van der Breggen, in: Nature conservation 2: the role of corridors, ed D.A. Saunders & R.J. Hobbs, (Surrey Beatty), 1991, pp 327-332. Topsoil containing seed of local species is replaced in the road reserve after construction. Indigenous grass species axe preferred in the hydroseeding mixture, which may be supplemented using seed of local shrub or fynbos vegetation. Predominantly indigenous trees and shrubs are planted. Natural colonization by indigenous species from outside the road reserve is encouraged. -from Authors 92Z/00059 Conservation of lakes and wetlands in India S . K . Kulshrestha, in: Growth, development and natural resource conservation, ed S.R. Verma, (Nature Conservators; Publication, 3), 1991, pp 259-276.

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Summarises the importance of wetlands and lakes, causes of their degradation, the problems faced by Indian wetlands and strategies for their conservation. -from Author 927,/00060 East Australian rain-forests: a case-study in resource harvesting and conservation I. F. Whitehouse, Environmental Conservation, 18(1), 1991, pp 33-43. Examines the significance of Australian rain forests; the main human interactions with rain forest; management of rain forest for commercial timber production; and the moves towards rain forest conservation. -from Author 92Z/00061 Conservation status of mailee eucalypts in southern Western Australia S.D. Hopper, in: The mallee lands. Prec. national mallee conference, Adelaide, 1989, ed J.C. Noble & others, (CSIRO), 1990, pp 21-24. Western Australia has the greatest diversity and most extensive communities of mallee eucalypts on the continent. South of 26" latitude, the number of known eucalypts has increased from 165 species in 1979 to c300 in 1989, of which 225 are mallees. A four-year survey of 158 rare and poorly known Western Australian eucalypts aims to address deficiencies in the biogeographic data base, and taxonomic research in recent years has clarified the status of many new and old taxa. Currently, 21 mallees are declared as Rare Flora under the Wildlife Conservation Act. Studies on the genetics and population biology of some of these taxa have revealed variable levels of genetic diversity in small populations. Fire appears to be an essential element for recruitment of some mallees. Its frequent use may convert low woodlands to mallee. A survey of mallee communities between Ravensthorpe and Esperance showed that reserves would have to be established every 15 km to achieve full representation. -from Author 92Z/00062 Review of mallee vegetation m a n a g e m e n t in the M u r r a y Hydrogeological Basin A. Beal & J. Venning, in: The mallee lands. Prec. national mallee conference, Adelaide, 1989, ed J.C. Noble & others, (CSIRO), 1990, pp 106-113. Provides an overview of surface and near-surface natural resource management issues associated with mallee vegetation clearing and then focuses on the link between clearing, accelerated groundwater recharge, dryland sMinlty development and increased river salinity. -from Authors 92Z/00063 Nature conservation of mallee lands in Australia M. Calder, in: The mallee lands. Prec. national mallee conference, Adelaide, 1989, ed J.C. Noble & others, (CSIRO), 1990, pp 162-166. Mallee communities are environmentally and ecologically significant as arid, fire-resistant shrublands dominated by multi-stemmed, sclerophyUous eucalypts with a limited range of associated trees and a diversity of understorey lant species. The fauna includes species which are depenent on the particular conditions of the mallee. Much reallee has been cleared, particularly for agriculture and livestock, and has been perturbed by the activities of introduced species such as many weeds and the fox Vulpes vulpes and feral cat Felis catus which are both significant predators of native animals. Conservation recommendations include: development of a coordinated national policy for the protection and conservation of all mallee communities; and investigation of the ecological effects of livestock grazing on mallet vegetation. -P.JJarvis

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922,/00064 Reserve selection in mallee lands R . L . Pressey, M. Bedward & A. O. Nicholls, in: The

mallee lands. Prec. national mallee conference, Adelaide, 1989, ed J.C. Noble & others, (CSIRO), 1990, pp 167-177. A new approach to reserve selection in Australia is minimum set analysis which can avoid opportunism or at least demonstrate its costs. One such analysis has been used to give some preliminary results for mallee lands in W New South Wales -from Authors