Biodiversity monitoring for the jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest in south-west Western Australia: An extension to ten-year findings of Forestcheck

Abstract

Long-term research and monitoring programs can provide important insights into biodiversity patterns to inform sustainable management of multi-use forest ecosystems. This study investigated biodiversity patterns in two forest ecosystems in the southwest region of Australia, as part of a long-term monitoring program, Forestcheck, established to track changes and trends in forest biodiversity associated with management activities. We assessed the effects of forest ecosystem, silvicultural treatment types (gap release and shelterwood/selective harvesting) and time since fire, on taxonomic richness and assemblage patterns across six taxonomic groups (terrestrial vertebrates, birds, macro-invertebrates, vascular plants, macro-fungi and cryptogams). Further, temporal comparisons in taxonomic richness and assemblage were completed for vascular plants and terrestrial vertebrates using data collected in a second round of monitoring. There was a low-level effect of harvesting and prescribed burning disturbance on combined community assemblage, but forest ecosystem had a greater influence on biodiversity patterns. Plant assemblages changed significantly according to ecosystem, silvicultural treatment type and monitoring round when two rounds of monitoring data were considered. These findings support previous assessments of Forestcheck sites, in that the strongest determinant of biodiversity patterns was forest ecosystem, and the greatest effects of disturbance were on assemblage patterns. These results provide some insight into post disturbance patterns and may assist with decision-making in relation to silviculture and prescribed burning regimes, and post-silviculture management, to provide increased opportunity for restoration of diversity.