Towards identification of an efficient set of natural diversity recovery catchments in the Western Australian wheatbelt

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 7 years ago

ABSTRACT – Prudent allocation of scarce conservation resources requires rigour in the indentification of conservation areas. We sought to broadly identify areas within the wheatbelt that would efficiently represent assemblages derived from the biological survey considered susceptible to the threat of salinity. We inferred the spatial distribution of each assemblage's species richness using a simple interpolation procedure. After omitting assemblages considered not to be threatened by salinity, as well as those for which the interpolation procedure failed to discriminate areas of high and low richness, analyses were undertaken using 17 aquatic and 6 terrestrial assemblages. To gain an appreciation of the magnitude of resourcing required for different levels of representation, we described the number of subcatchments and the area required to satisfy a range of conservation targets, where targets were based on the number of species associated with each assemblage. Near-optimal solutions were identified using a heuristic algorithm principally driven by a measure of irreplaceability for each of 829 subcatchments comprising the study area.

Results identified a subset of core areas for conservation investment that effeciently represented assemblage diversity. However, when on-ground management activities commence in each of the identified areas, field reconnaissance and verification will be necessary to account for localised variation in species richness and for vagaries in the distribution of remnant vegetation patches, wetlands and salinity risk. After canvassing limitations of the methodological approach, we conclude that the use of systematic planning tools involving heuristic algorithms provides a sound basis for estimating the extent and configuration of areas to satisfy specified conservation targets. 

Author(s) T.V. Walshe, S.A. Halse, N.L. McKenzie and N. Gibson
Volume
Supplement 67 : A Biodiversity survey of the Western Australian agricultural zone
Article Published
2004
Page Number
365

DOI
10.18195/issn.0313-122x.67.2004.365-384