Myoporum platycarpum survey, Koonamore Vegetation Monitoring Project (1925-present)

The TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve (or Koonamore Vegetation Reserve (KVR)) is a protected area on Koonamore Station which has been fenced off from grazing since the mid 1920's. In 1925, Professor Theodore George Bentley (TGB) Osborn and his colleagues established a vegetation reserve by fencing off 400 ha of a badly overgrazed portion of the Koonamore station to study the process of recovery of vegetation in the arid zone of South Australia after the removal of grazing pressure. The fence was established to initially keep sheep and later also rabbits from the reserve and allow vegetation regeneration. The resulting long-term vegetation monitoring project at Koonamore is now over 80 years old, making it one of the longest-running monitoring series of its type in the world.; Reserve History: In the mid 1920's Professor TGB Osborn and his colleagues extended their interests in ecology and field physiology of vegetation to the arid zone of South Australia. In 1892 Dixon had warned the Royal Society of South Australia of serious degradation of the soils and vegetation resulting from pastoralism and other alien influences in the region. Equally important to the origin of KVR was the new theory of vegetation succession derived from North American work early in the century. Osborn was particularly concerned with the question as to whether overgrazing by domestic and feral herbivores would result in return of the original vegetation via recognisable 'seral' stages, or whether the changes were ?artificial, mere destructions and as such outside the ecologist's proper field?. Although the concepts of 'succession' and the scope of ecology have developed and changed much since that time, nevertheless it was interest in 'succession to climax' that gave the initial impetus to KVR and many other long-term vegetation studies from that time. The theory of vegetation succession gave rise to the permanent charted quadrat as a technique for observing vegetation change. An extensive series of permanent quadrats was set up on KVR and supplemented by a series of fixed photopoints, in order to pursue the first aim. Although some of these were allowed to lapse within five years, many others were sampled more or less regularly, some almost annually up to the present. Several early publications reviewing the progress of vegetation change resulted. Nothing was done towards the second aim but autecological and population dynamics studies are still being carried out, based on KVR and its records. The Bibliography contains a complete listing of research publications arising from work done on the Reserve. Much of the continuity of the earlier records is due to the efforts of Miss Constance Eardley, who while a lecturer in the Department of Botany, organised annual visits of students and staff to take records and maintain KVR. However, after 1950 the rate of sampling had begun to decline and in the mid 1960's ceased altogether for a period of several years. In the 1970's Dr Russell Sinclair reactivated the recording programme and also began a sustained effort at rabbit control. Although the Reserve was originally fenced with rabbit-proof netting, the rabbits were never eradicated and the population has fluctuated greatly with the seasons. Beginning in 1975, numbers have been kept very low by careful annual inspection and control. Since that time there has been marked seedling establishment of several tree and shrub species which showed little previous regeneration. The Reserve records now contain a history of the vegetation over 50 years without sheep grazing followed by over 30 years without significant grazing by either sheep or rabbits. Kangaroos and emus have never been excluded from the Reserve, as they can jump the fence, and their numbers vary with the seasons. The monitoring work at KVR and the curation of its records is continuing under the direction of Dr Sinclair. The Reserve is also used for post-graduate study and complements the arid-zone research interests of Environmental Biology at the Middleback Field Sation near Whyalla.; Site Description: The Reserve is located in the centre of Koonamore Station, a sheep-grazing lease 400 km north-east of Adelaide, South Australia (Lat. 32º07'S, Long. 139º20'E) in predominantly chenopod shrubland with mean annual rainfall of about 200mm. The area consists of a complex of low sand dunes alternating with sand plain and harder loam soils with travertine limestone on the intervening flats. The tree cover is a low open woodland formation. The sand dunes carry Acacia aneura (mulga), A. burkittii and Eremophila spp., the sand plain a dense stand of Casuarina pauper (blackoak, belah), and the harder loam soils a mixed community of Myoporum platycarpum (false sandalwood) and Alectryon oleifolius (bullock bush, rosewood). Understorey shrubs, which also form low chenopod shrubland communities in some areas, include Atriplex vesicaria (bladder saltbush), A. stipitata and Maireana sedifolia (bluebush). Numerous other chenopodiaceous shrubs also occur, and grass and ephemeral herb cover varies with the seasons. Several species of Senna, Eremophila and other shrubs also occur.; Monitoring activities: Some or all of the following monitoring activities are carried out during visits to the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve: Vegetation Quadrats, Photopoints, Senna Quadrat (Cassia Corner), Myoporum platycarpum Plants, Saltbush Transects, Senna Populations, Kangaroo Transects, Rabbit Activity Monitoring and Control.; Myoporum platycarpum: A group of Myoporum platycarpum plants, located in and outside of the vegetation quadrats, have been measured and monitored in the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve since they were identified in 1962. Please use the following URL to access the dataset: http://aekos.org.au/collection/adelaide.edu.au/Koonamore/MyoporumIndividualsTGB奥斯本植被保护区（TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve，又称库纳莫尔植被保护区Koonamore Vegetation Reserve，简称KVR）是位于库纳莫尔牧场上的受保护区域，自20世纪20年代中期起便被围栏隔离以禁止放牧。1925年，西奥多·乔治·本特利·奥斯本（Theodore George Bentley Osborn，简称TGB Osborn）教授及其同事将库纳莫尔牧场中400公顷严重过度放牧的区域用围栏圈定，建立起该植被保护区，旨在研究南澳大利亚干旱区移除放牧压力后植被的恢复过程。该围栏最初用于阻挡绵羊，后续增设了阻挡野兔的功能，以促进植被自然更新。库纳莫尔的长期植被监测项目至今已逾80年，是全球同类持续时间最长的监测序列之一。 保护区历史：20世纪20年代中期，TGB奥斯本教授及其同事将其在植被生态学与野外生理学领域的研究兴趣拓展至南澳大利亚干旱区。早在1892年，迪克森就曾向南澳大利亚皇家学会警示该区域因畜牧业及其他外来因素导致的土壤与植被严重退化。与库纳莫尔植被保护区（KVR）创立同样关键的，是本世纪早期源自北美研究提出的植被演替新理论。奥斯本尤为关注的核心问题是：家养与野生植食动物造成的过度放牧，是否会通过可识别的"演替系列（seral）"阶段恢复原生植被，抑或此类变化仅是人为的单纯破坏，从而超出生态学家的研究范畴？尽管自彼时起，"演替"的概念与生态学研究范畴已发生诸多演变，但正是对"顶级群落演替"的兴趣，为库纳莫尔植被保护区及此后诸多长期植被研究项目提供了最初的动力。植被演替理论催生了永久性样方（quadrat）这一观测植被变化的研究技术。研究团队在库纳莫尔植被保护区内设置了一系列永久性样方，并辅以固定摄影点（photopoints），以实现首要研究目标。尽管部分样方在五年内便停止了监测，但其余多数样方均得到了或多或少的定期采样，部分样方甚至几乎每年都会开展监测，直至今日。相关团队已发表多篇综述植被变化进程的早期研究成果。针对第二个研究目标的工作尚未开展，但基于库纳莫尔植被保护区及其观测记录的个体生态学与种群动态研究仍在持续进行。参考文献部分完整收录了基于该保护区研究产出的所有学术出版物。早期记录的连续性在很大程度上得益于康斯坦斯·厄德利女士（Constance Eardley）的付出：她时任植物学系讲师期间，组织师生年度到访保护区开展数据记录与维护工作。然而1950年后，采样频率开始下降，20世纪60年代中期甚至完全中断了数年。20世纪70年代，拉塞尔·辛克莱博士（Russell Sinclair）重新启动了监测计划，并开始持续开展野兔防控工作。尽管保护区最初使用的是防兔围栏，但野兔始终未能被彻底根除，其种群数量随季节波动剧烈。自1975年起，通过精心的年度检查与防控措施，野兔种群数量被维持在极低水平。自此之后，多种此前几乎未见更新的乔木与灌木物种出现了显著的幼苗定植现象。保护区的记录档案现已涵盖了超过50年无绵羊放牧、以及随后超过30年无绵羊或野兔显著放牧的植被历史。袋鼠与鸸鹋从未被隔离在保护区外，因其可翻越围栏，其种群数量同样随季节波动。目前，库纳莫尔植被保护区的监测工作与档案管理仍在辛克莱博士的指导下持续开展。该保护区同时用于研究生教学与研究，可补充完善位于怀阿拉附近的米德巴克野外站（Middleback Field Station）环境生物学方向的干旱区研究项目。 样地概况：该保护区位于库纳莫尔牧场中心区域，该牧场为绵羊放牧租赁地，地处南澳大利亚州阿德莱德东北400公里处（地理坐标：南纬32°07′，东经139°20′），原生植被以藜科灌丛（chenopod shrubland）为主，年平均降水量约200毫米。区域内分布着低矮沙丘与沙质平原交替的复杂地貌，其间的平地覆盖有钙积石灰岩，土壤则以较硬的壤土为主。乔木层为低矮开阔的林地结构。低矮沙丘上生长着多节相思树（Acacia aneura，又称mulga）、伯基特相思树（A. burkittii）及爱沙木属（Eremophila）物种；沙质平原上分布着密集的贫木麻黄（Casuarina pauper，又称黑橡、贝拉哈）群落；较硬的壤土区域则生长着肉果木（Myoporum platycarpum，又称假檀香木）与异叶异木患（Alectryon oleifolius，又称牛轭木、玫瑰木）的混合群落。林下灌木在部分区域同样形成低矮的藜科灌丛群落，包括囊滨藜（Atriplex vesicaria，又称膀胱滨藜）、具柄滨藜（A. stipitata）以及蓝蓬（Maireana sedifolia，又称蓝bush）。此外还分布有众多其他藜科灌木，草本与一年生草本植被覆盖度随季节变化。此外还可见决明属（Senna）、爱沙木属等多种灌木物种。 监测活动：在到访TGB奥斯本植被保护区期间，会开展以下一项或多项监测工作：植被样方监测、摄影点监测、决明属样方（Cassia Corner，即决明角）监测、肉果木个体监测、滨藜样带监测、决明属种群监测、袋鼠样带监测、野兔活动监测与防控。 肉果木（Myoporum platycarpum）：自1962年被识别以来，保护区内及植被样方周边的一批肉果木个体便一直处于测量与监测状态。可通过以下URL访问该数据集：http://aekos.org.au/collection/adelaide.edu.au/Koonamore/MyoporumIndividuals