Using growth-form attributes to identify pre-settlement woodland trees in central NSW, Australia
Peter G. Spooner A B , Ian D. Lunt A and Lisa Smallbone AA Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, NSW 2460, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: pspooner@csu.edu.au
Australian Journal of Botany 58(3) 188-197 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT09122
Submitted: 17 July 2009 Accepted: 1 March 2010 Published: 5 May 2010
Abstract
Old-growth woodland trees perform many important ecological functions, by providing critical fauna habitat and in sustaining biological diversity. Australian woodlands are dominated by box Eucalyptus species, which are difficult to age accurately using dendrochronology and other well-practiced methods. We aimed to develop a simple field method for identifying pre-settlement (old growth) Eucalyptus trees in south-eastern Australia, using measurements of tree growth-form attributes. We used TwoStep cluster analysis to classify and independently assess trees, and logistic regression analyses to develop models to identify pre-settlement trees in the field based on recorded attributes. Post-settlement (regrowth) trees tended to have a very uniform appearance, whereas the growth-form of older pre-settlement trees greatly varied, in terms of the number of stem and pipe hollows, and number of primary and secondary branches. This clear discrimination between cohorts of trees is discussed in terms of historic changes to disturbance regimes, and resultant impacts on remnant woodland structures. Our results provide a robust method for reliably identifying pre-settlement Eucalyptus trees in the field using tree growth-form measurements, and have broader implications for identifying age cohorts of forest and woodland trees elsewhere.
Acknowledgements
We thank Nigel Jones, Maree Petrow and many enthusiastic assistants who helped to collect the field data. This study was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP0451944) to IDL. Peter Spooner was provided in-kind support by the Western Transportation Institute (Road ecology group), Montana State University, to prepare this manuscript. Simon McDonald prepared Fig. 1. Andrew Bennett, Rodney van der Ree and Michael Harper kindly provided comments to improve an earlier draft of this manuscript.
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