The previous chapter reported the big picture; an overview of the continent and States and Territories.
This section is a preparation for the next on Case Studies. Both of these sections report in detail on individual landcover types.
Before doing so, we remind the reader that the primary focus of this project was the entire continent: we systematically sought to derive a consistent overall view. This objective required that we worked at coarse spatial scales and what is particularly relevant here, paid equal attention to all landcover types.
As a consequence, the results may be puzzling. Some of the landcover types that are the subject of frequent public debate do not occupy a central place, or even seem important.
One such example is the closed forests of the tropical coasts (xTML4 - the closed forests), which cover only a few percent of the area of the continent; see Table 3 and the following image of Townsville.
The 1: 1, 000, 000 scale map sheet TOWNSVILLE covering the tropical Queensland coast and inland; total area approximately 120, 000 km2. A very large proportion of the tropical rainforests was located in this region. A moment's interpretation of the colours and patterns in this image results in the conclusion that the landscapes are now significantly modified. Landuse has, and continues, to influence this landcover type.
We also remind the reader that we have no index of biodiversity importance with which to sensitise or further stratify our analysis.
No doubt, because of their intrinsically high biodiversity complement, the tropical rainforests have high conservation value. Unfortunately, the equivalent data and understanding are lacking whereby the remaining landcover types can be ranked for biodiversity significance or even conservation status.
At present, importance for biodiversity is most commonly assigned simply on the basis of the presence of small populations of a rare species, usually fauna. We would prefer to assign importance and stratify our study on the basis of continental datasets of the level of endemism, and on the nature and level of threat. We believe this report contributes to the latter approach.
Unfortunately, there is no continental assessment of endemism.
The remainder of this chapter details how and what will be reported in Case Studies.
If you are interested in the Case Studies, then it is worth your while to continue with this section.
The current level of landcover disturbance and vulnerability to further disturbance were separately assessed for each of the 33 landcover types within both the ILZ and ELZ.
From this complete list, a subset of 16 types is presented in detail with this common format of reporting and scoring.
Description
Each landcover type is identified with its number and symbol, described in terms of the structural and floristic grouping, and illustrated with a landscape photograph.
To convey an overall impression of where a particular landcover type is found in a regional landscape, a pair of satellite images is provided. The first image of the pair shows the entire regional landscape: the second shows just the landcover type.
Size And Location
A tabular summary of the absolute and relative aggregate area within the ILZ and ELZ is provided along with an image of the relative size and distribution of all locations of this landcover type for the following:
Vulnerability To Future Disturbance
Disturbance By Habitat Invasion
