Sphagnum Bogs of the New England Plateau, New South Wales

Abstract

Although Sphagnum bog communities in Australia occupy only relatively small areas they are really quite abundant and constitute an important part of the subalpine and montane vegetation of the highlands. Very few descriptions of Australian bogs have yet been published. Crocker & Eardley (1939) have described a bog in the south-east of South Australia and McLuckie & Petrie (1927) some Sphagnum communities on Mount Kosciusko. Costin (unpublished) has also investigated certain aspects of bog formation in the latter area. However, it may be stated that no detailed work comparable with that done in Great Britain or Europe has yet been attempted in Australia. The chief aim of this paper is to record the occurrence of bogs in the New England district and to present a preliminary description which will serve not only as a basis for further investigations in Australia, but also as a comparison for northern hemisphere equivalents. The bog communities examined are found on the higher eastern part of New England in the Snowy Range. Fig. 1 shows the location of the moss communities examined. They occur most frequently, and show most active and extensive development above 1067 m., but only in areas where a constant supply of surface or seepage water is available. The adjacent soils of the upper slopes of the valleys are krasnozems and chocolate soils, brown podsols, alpine humus podsols and white sandy podsols (Hallsworth, Costin, Gibbons & Robertson, 1952; Costin, Hallsworth & Woof, 1952). On the lower slopes and valley floors, the catenic sequence is from upslope meadow podsols to deep bog peats in the permanently saturated lowlands. The pH of the bog springs, inflowing streams and marginal laggs is acid to almost neutral (4-6-6-8), more acid inflows being found where Sphagnum* communities occur downslope of fringing heath-sedge-restionaceous communities. The pH of the waters of bogs in the higher parts of the plateau towards Point Lookout is always nearer the lower end of the range, i.e. pH 4-5.