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Project 1.4.3 - Rainforest threatened species and communities and ecosystem processes

Click here for Year 3 (2008/2009) Project Objectives

Technical Report: The spatial distribution and characteristics of the Queensland Forest Service rainforest map units in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland

The following report by Andrew W. Graham includes two appendices:

  • Appendix 1:  Queensland Forest Service 1:50,000 Map Sheets - Digital images of the 43 sheets of the series of 1:50,000 Queensland Forest Service maps that were current around 1990; and

  • Appendix 2:  Patch Data Spreasheet - Records for every patch of the following attributes:  patch number; Queensland Forest Service map sheet name and reference number; map data record number; patch size (ha); whether patch was included within the 1998 Wet Tropics World Heritage Area listing; minimum elevation, maximum elevation and derived range (m); boundary length and boundary area/ratio; 'naturalness' of the patch margins; distance to nearest adjacent patch; and topographic and geomorphic settings.

Due to download limits, both of these appendices are available by contacting:

Dr Dan Metcalfe
Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Phone (07) 4091 8838
Email Dan.Metcalfe@csiro.au
PO Box 780, Atherton QLD 4883

Click on the link below to access the report.

Project 1.4.3 CSIRO (2009) The spatial distribution and characteristics of the Queensland Forest Service rainforest map units in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland
Compiled and edited by Andrew W. Graham from a study initiated by M. S. Hopkins with data recorded by P. Harland and R. K. Hewett. CSIRO Report No. VM1/049-15, 6 April 2009. ABSTRACT: This report presents unpublished but somewhat 'dated' data on the spatial distribution patterns of mainland North Queensland rainforests from 43 Queensland Forest Service 1:50,000 maps as available in 1990. At that time all data extractions from the maps were carried out manually as digital mapping resources were not available. All mapped rainforest isolates were assessed and arbitrarily classified as massifs (>10,000 ha), blocks (1,000–10,000 ha) and patches (<1,000 ha). Eleven massifs were defined, covering 635,945 ha and representing 89.4% of the total mapped area of 711,574 ha; seven blocks extended over 14,248 ha and represented two percent of the mapped area; 3,974 patches were identified covering 61,381 ha representing 8.6 percent of the mapped area. All patches were classified with regard to location in regard to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA) boundary, elevation and boundary length, naturalness of the margins, distance to the nearest patch, as well as topographic and geomorphic settings. Approximately two-thirds of the patches, both by number and area, had natural boundaries. Just over 50% of the patches occurred across 10 maps sheets and represented 59% of all patches with natural boundaries, being concentrated in the north-northwest and southern sections of the study area. Natural patches are most common in areas of marginal to unsuitable climate for rainforest, in rugged areas and on lower fertility soils. Map sheets with the largest areas of patches with modified boundaries are most commonly located in wet coastal areas and Tablelands areas. Just over 60% of patches are located completely outside the WTWHA boundary. In terms of geomorphic and topographic settings, riparian patches are most common, typically at lower altitudes. Discrepancies between the total mapped area and other contemporaneous estimates of the mainland rainforest area are addressed and some important general implications for management are briefly considered. Images of the 43 assessed maps and the spreadsheet of the full dataset are included with the report. [pdf 2.4 Mb]


Year 3 (2008/2009) Project Leader: 
Dr Dan Metcalfe, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Research Organistion: CSIRO, JCU.

This project will identify the condition and trends of, and likely future for, cassowaries and arboreal mammals and the rare and threatened species and ecosystems of the coastal lowlands, with an initial focus on the Tully-Murray-Hull catchments which include some of the best remnant Melaleucas in the bioregion, and the important Mission Beach area. It will also develop management options for mitigating threats to these environmental assets.

Surveys to report condition and trends will be agreed through discussion with end users and in a workshop to ensure that the maximum utility may be achieved from the survey effort, and to ensure that data collection meets individual requirements for statutory reporting and to support other projects.

Data on Regional Ecosystem composition and condition will support the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency re-assessment program; identified threats and condition will feed into Terrain NRM Ltd and Wet Tropics Management Authority statutory reporting and inform policy development, and collation of information on the impact of fire and of weeds and feral animals will inform Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service management policy and Department of Natural Resources and Mines weed eradication programs. One consequence of the range of Research Users with an interest in the outputs of the project is that the data needs to be collected and analysed in a manner suitable to providing outputs at a range of scales and to a range of different types of research user. Outputs from climate change related objectives will assist managers to critically assess realistic and mechanistic-based climate change threats to two groups of Wet Tropics endemic vertebrates, the microhylid frogs and rainforest possums, allowing identification of likely refugia and possible mitigation measures.

The project involves substantial collaboration with Terrain NRM Ltd and links into the work being undertaken through the Coastal Catchment Initiatives program in the Tully catchment and potentially, in subsequent years, in the Barron catchment.

Key Objectives:

  1. Refinement of existing survey protocols for birds and vascular plants to incorporate flying foxes, signs of fire history, presence and abundance of weeds and ferals, and expand data collection on cassowaries and on ecosystem health.

  2. Completion of baseline data for the Tully-Murray-Hull catchments using revised protocol, and collection of baseline for other priority catchments.

  3. Clarification of the community composition of threatened lowland Regional Ecosystems (REs) and their role in terms of maintaining rare and threatened species, and harbouring exotic and pest species. Identification of key indicators of ecosystem health.

  4. Assessment of key threatening processes and of effectiveness of current management practices in maintaining lowland ecosystem health.

  5. Focus on the impact of fragmentation as a key threatening process toward which targeted management approaches may have significant outcomes; contextualisation of fragments in terms of their size, location and age, and the biological trajectories that different combinations of these may confer.

  6. Assessment of likelihood and direction of community change of REs under climate change scenarios, or as a result of changed ecological functioning (linked to Project 2.5ii.3).

  7. Determine physiological mechanisms of impacts of climate change on highland rare and threatened species concentrating on arboreal marsupials and microhylid frogs (linked to Project 2.5ii.4).

Project 1.4.3 Downloads

Project 1.4.3 CSIRO Metcalfe, D. (2007) Project Milestone Report August
Report prepared by CSIRO researchers which summarises work carried out between December 2006 and June 2007 in pursuance of the objectives set for 2006/2007. [pdf 103.2 kb]


Interview Transcript - 'Save our ringtails'

James Cook University and Project 1.4.3 researcher, Dr Andrew Krockenberger was interviewed in November 2008 by ABC Far North Queensland.  Andrew has co-authored a study on rainforest rintail possums in the Far North that will appear in the Journal of Animal Ecology.  [Read the transcript online] [Download PDF of transcript]

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