Ninety years of change on the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore: a unique research opportunity
R. Sinclair A B and Jose M. Facelli AA School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: russell.sinclair@adelaide.edu.au
The Rangeland Journal 41(3) 185-187 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ18022
Submitted: 26 February 2018 Accepted: 25 August 2018 Published: 31 October 2018
Abstract
The TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, on Koonamore station in the NE pastoral area of South Australia, is the longest-running vegetation monitoring project of its type in Australia. In 1925, a 4-km2 rectangle in a heavily overgrazed area was fenced to exclude rabbits and sheep, and permanent quadrats and photo-points set up to record changes. The area is predominantly chenopod shrubland, with an open woodland tree layer. After the initial elimination of rabbits, control slackened and rabbit numbers increased until the 1970s, when intense elimination efforts resumed, together with the arrival of myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease viruses. Consequently, the reserve has had 50 years without sheep, followed by 40 years virtually without either sheep or rabbits. Changes over that time have been very striking, and they have been recorded regularly via mapped quadrats and photopoints.
The objective of this paper is to highlight opportunities for making use of this database for researching several interesting ecological questions.
Additional keywords: grazing pressure, long-term monitoring, rabbits, sheep.
References
Hall, E. A. A., Specht, R. L., and Eardley, C. M. (1964). Regeneration of the vegetation on Koonamore Vegetation Reserve, 1926–1962. Australian Journal of Botany 12, 205–264.| Regeneration of the vegetation on Koonamore Vegetation Reserve, 1926–1962.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Osborn, T. G. B. (1925). On the ecology of the vegetation of arid Australia. No.1. Introduction and general description of the Koonamore Reserve for the study of the saltbush flora. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 49, 290–297.
Osborn, T. G. B., Wood, J. G., and Paltridge, T. B. (1932). On the growth and reaction to grazing of the perennial saltbush, Atriplex vesicarium. An ecological study of the biotic factor. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 7, 377–402.
Osborn, T. G. B., Wood, J. G., and Paltridge, T. B. (1935). On the climate and vegetation of the Koonamore Vegetation Reserve to 1931. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 60, 392–427.
Rogers, R. W. (1974). Lichens from the T.G.B. Osborn Vegetation Reserve at Koonamore in arid South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 98, 113–124.
Sinclair, R. (2005). Long-term changes in vegetation, gradual and episodic, on the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore, South Australia, (1926–2002). Australian Journal of Botany 53, 283–296.
| Long-term changes in vegetation, gradual and episodic, on the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore, South Australia, (1926–2002).Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Wood, J. G. (1936). Regeneration of the vegetation on the Koonamore Vegetation Reserve, 1926 to 1936. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 60, 96–111.
