Managing intensive and extensive land uses to conserve grassland plants in sub-tropical eucalypt woodlands

Abstract

We sampled grasslands at 108 sites, representing five combinations of soil disturbance and enrichment that occurred in eucalypt grassy woodlands in eastern Australia. Intensive land use was represented as a combination of cultivation and fertilizer addition. Other disturbances were represented as various combinations of moderate or no soil disturbance and water enrichment or no enrichment. We identified disturbance response groups that were broadly summarized as Generalists, Tolerant species, Specialists and Intolerant species. The exotic component of the grasslands differs from the native in that there were more Intolerant species amongst natives and more Disturbance Specialist species amongst exotics. However, there were strong similarities, with the majority of exotics (66%) and of natives (60%) being either Generalists or Disturbance Tolerators. The evidence from this study suggests that significant expansion of intensive land use in the district, combining cultivation and fertilization, would pose a major threat to grassland vegetation and would threaten 69 of the 121 native species analysed.