Biodiversity of Wielangta Forest - Wild Wielangta - Edublogs

Vegetation
7
Biodiversity of Wielangta Forest
Changes in natural vegetation type are largely reflective of the varying rainfall conditions but are also
a response to local changes in soil topography and aspect.
Key vegetation types include:
Vegetation Type Area (ha) % of total area
Rainforest and mixed forest 285 0.8
Wet eucalypt forest 3499 10
Dry
forest
sclerophyll eucalypt
Non
scrub
eucalypt forest and
22258 64
1204 3
Native Grassland 554 2
Saltmarsh and wetland 224 0.6
Plantation 2228 6
Agriculture and other nonnative
units
4394 13
Total 34646 -
Sources for rainforest and mixed forest – Tasveg 2 adapted applying data from Neyland 1991, Coates
1993, Interpretation of PI units E2cS, E2dS, E3+dS
The Tasmanian vegetation has been classified and mapped at a state-wide level to a scale of
1:25000. The latest Tasveg version 2.0 includes 144 communities.A vegetation type map has been
created based on Tasveg 2. This has been modified to take into account new plantations which have
been interpreted from reviewing Google images. A list of all Tasveg communities present within the
Wielangta study area and their extent is provided in Appendix 2.
The reliability and thus accuracy of Tasveg mapping is highly variable. Although at the vegetation
type level the mapping is reasonably accurate, the community classification is generally based on
ecological principles with limited field verification. Forest mapping was undertaken for The Regional
Forest Agreement through the mid 1990s. At that stage none of the sophisticated electronic aerial
photography and GIS systems that we now take for granted, were available. Mapping was largely
done by hand. In Wielangta there are vast areas of E. pulchella forest mapped. Although this
community is indeed widespread, and locally dominant in the area, some of the mapping of this
community captures greater diversity incorporating other dry forest communities. Refer Appendix 1.
Wild Wielangta