Some gaps in the reserve system of the southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 7 years ago

ABSTRACT – Site-based data on patterns in terrestrial and wetland biodiversity were used to identify some major gaps in the comprehensiveness of the reserve system in a 75000 km2 region on the mid-west coast of Western Australia. Data comprised lists of plants, birds, reptiles, frogs, mammals, ground-dwelling spiders, scorpions and centipedes from 63 terrestrial sites, and waterbirds, wetland plants and aquatic invertebrates from 51 wetland sites. The sites were positioned in a stratified array across the geographical extent of the region, but their number and dispersal was limited by the cost of sampling such a variety of taxa. Although this geographical sparsity limited the geographical resolution of the reserve selection procedures, a distinct lack of cross-taxon congruence in the geographical patterns of taxa implied that data on a range of taxa should be used to design the region's reserve system. We specify the biological characteristics and pattern of occurrence of 12 terrestrial communities and eight wetland-types that need to be added to the reserve system.

Author(s) N.L. McKenzie, S.A. Halse and N. Gibson
Volume
Supplement 61 : Biodiversity of the southern Carnarvon Basin
Article Published
2000
Page Number
547

DOI
10.18195/issn.0313-122x.61.2000.547-567