Eighty-three years of vegetation change on the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore
Eighty-three years of vegetation change on the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore Conference Paper
16th Australian Rangeland Society Biennial Conference
- Author(s): Sinclair, R., Graetz, D.
- Published: 2010
- Publisher: Australian Rangeland Society
Abstract: The TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore, was established in 1925 to record the changes in vegetation of a chenopod shrubland as the land recovered from severe stocking pressure. Permanent quadrats, photopoints and transects have recorded changes over 83 years to the present. Sheep were removed from the reserve, but rabbits, though initially suppressed, were not controlled for the first 50 years, and numbers were high in several periods. For the last 30 years continuous rabbit control has kept their numbers very low. There have been large changes in the vegetation in response to the changes in grazing pressure, and also rainfall events. Changes on one of the quadrats between 1926 and 2009 are presented in the form of a video, made from the photos taken at one of the permanent photopoints on the quadrat. The video shows a dramatic increase in Atriplex species during the first 55 years, and a more recent large increase in Senna species. A “time-lapse” video spanning such a long period is probably unique. Similar videos are being prepared for the many other photopoints on the Reserve.