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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 53(6)

Plant cover and composition in relation to density of Callitris glaucophylla (white cypress pine) along a rainfall gradient in eastern Australia

W. A. Thompson A and D. J. Eldridge B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

B Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: d.eldridge@unsw.edu.au

Australian Journal of Botany 53(6) 545-554 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT04133
Submitted: 31 August 2004  Accepted: 26 May 2005   Published: 30 September 2005

Abstract

Despite the widespread distribution of Callitris glaucophylla J.Thompson & L.Johnson (white cypress pine) over large areas of eastern Australia, little is known about its impact on the diversity and cover of understorey plants. We examined C. glaucophylla woodlands to see whether stand density and land management influenced the cover and composition of the understorey vegetation. The cover and diversity of understorey plant communities were measured at 83 sites along a gradient in average annual rainfall (215–532 mm) in eastern Australia. The diversity and cover of understorey plants and the cover of trees increased, and the composition of the understorey community changed with increases in average annual rainfall. There were no clear relationships, however, between tree cover or density, and the cover or diversity of understorey plants. Sites that had not been logged contained significantly greater proportions of native and perennial vascular plants, and sites with extant eucalypts had a significantly higher proportion of shrubs than those sites without eucalypts. We attributed these differences to past forestry disturbance regimes which are correlated with the presence of mature eucalypts. Our results do not support the proposition that dense stands of C. glaucophylla suppress the understorey vegetation.


Acknowledgments

We thank Kurt Sutton, Christopher Stachowski, John Naimo and Sue Reilly for their help in the field, and State Forests of NSW for allowing us access to forestry sites and records on individual forests. We thank those landholders who granted us access to their properties, in particular Ann Sloane for her assistance with data collection. John Naimo, Frank Hemmings, Eric White, Chris Nadolny and Greg Steinbeck helped with identifying vascular plants. Chris Myers provided information on soil analyses, and Dorothy Yu and Vanessa Wong undertook the analyses. We thank Chris Nadolny, Ian Lunt and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by a UNSW International Postgraduate Research Fellowship to Wendy Thompson.


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