Biological inventory for conservation evaluation - IV. Composition, distribution and spatial prediction of vegetation assemblages in southern Australia

Data on the floristics of the vegetation collected as part of a systematic, stratified regional survey of birds in the open Eucalyptus forests of south east Australia, were used to investigate the composition and distribution of vegetation assemblages across the region, and the extent to which associations between plant species could be used to predict the potential species complement of unsampled areas of the region. One hundred and ninety-three plant species were recorded in the open Eucalyptus forests in this study. These comprised 22 tree overstorey species, 46 tree understorey species, 114 shrub and herbaceous species, and 11 ground cover species from approximately 106 genera. Broad trends in the distribution of vegetation assemblages were associated with perceived elevation and soil moisture/nutrient gradients across the study region. BIOCLIM provided a means of characterising these broad trends in the distribution of vegetation assemblages by defining climatic envelopes for clusters of sites. Of the variables used to define these climatic envelopes, temperature variables were the most useful in discriminating between groups of sites. However, only a limited number of discrete assemblages of plants associated with groups of sites could be used for predicting the occurrence of vegetation assemblages in unsampled areas in the landscape.