Lord Howe Island Invertebrate Biodiversity Inventory

The view from the top of Mt Gower is definitely worth the effort to get there.

In 2000, teams from the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Research (CBCR) visited Lord Howe Island to do an invertebrate survey. Lord Howe Island lies approximately 700 kilometres northeast of Sydney and was listed as a World Heritage area in 1982.

The aim of the study was to undertake a baseline inventory of the invertebrate fauna of the island. A baseline inventory is undertaken when data for a particular area is patchy or absent, though the inventory itself may not result in the collection of all the fauna in the region. The data collected from a baseline inventory allows for comparison with data collected in the future, allowing for examination of patterns in the fauna that may result from environmental changes.

Over four weeks two teams of CBCR staff laid traps and collected material from as many different habitats on the island as possible, including the slopes and summit of Mount Gower, Little Slope, the slopes of Mount Lidgebird, Erskine Valley, Intermediate Hill, Roach Island and Malabar Hill.

In Nov 2001 Paul Flemons and Chris Reid spent nine nights in the National Parks igloo on top of Mt Gower, where they surveyed the insects of the summit. The summit of Mt Gower is a cloudy rainforest, and differs substantially in vegetation and fauna composition to the rest of the island. The conditions for the entire nine nights were uncomfortable, it was cold, wet and there were quite a number of leeches around. Ian Hutton, a naturalist living on Lord Howe Island, joined the two Museum scientists for four of the nights.

This research is ongoing and we are currently involved in a study on the effect on the invertebrate fauna of excluding rats from certain areas of the island. In November 2003 Louise Meades, Georgie Brown and Scott Lassau from the CBCR began a rat exclusion program, sampling within areas fenced off from the rest of the island. The aim is to analyse the fauna inside and outside these areas to determine what effect the removal of rats will have. Conditions on the trip were problematic, constant rain and flooding ensured that the sampling didn't go as planned. We aim to gather more data in future sampling programs.

Lord Howe Island fieldwork gallery

Lord Howe Island Invertebrate Biodiversity Inventory

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