Nandewar Bioregion Scoping Study

The Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Research team in the field, just before the inaugural hat judging competition.

In November/December 2001 the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Research (CBCR) began a sampling regime within the Nandewar Bioregion in New South Wales. New South Wales contains seventeen interim bioregions, each of which contains ecosystems with similar vegetation, soils, climate, geology and landforms. The Nandewar Bioregion comprises an area of 21 038km 2 on the north-western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales.

The aim of the project was to provide a baseline inventory of terrestrial invertebrates from selected taxonomic groups (eg. ants, beetles, spiders) from throughout the Nandewar Bioregion using standardised collection techniques. 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.

The project was funded by Integrated Biodiversity Conservation Assessment (IBCA) and followed on from the Darling Riverine Plains Project (DRRP). The sampling methodology was slightly different from that used in the DRRP project, with the emphasis switching from biodiversity patterns associated with land tenure (eg. crown land, leasehold etc.) to patterns associated with landscape structural elements such as soil and vegetation.

Despite a modest budget and limited time frame this project added a significant amount of knowledge about invertebrate biodiversity in New South Wales including:

Over 530 species of invertebrate were collected and identified
At least 10 new species were identified, further data were collected on species that were previously rare in museum collections, and previously unrecorded ecological information was obtained for others.
Over 9248 records, including 5435 records from 860 identified species or morphospecies, were extracted from collections databases.

Initial analysis of the various invertebrate data sets found evidence that the composition of the fauna varied depending on the vegetation type and landscape. Modelling of hotspots (areas that have a high species richness and geographically restricted fauna) suggests that geographic areas within the bioregion would benefit from more focussed surveys.

Nandewar Reports

Contents (PDF 222 kb)
Project Description (PDF 75 kb)
The Nandewar Bioregion (PDF 182 kb)
Methods (PDF 1.3 kb)
Results: General Descriptive Statisitcs (PDF 592 kb)
Results: Constrained Ordination (PDF 728 kb)
Results: GIS Modelling - Hot Spots Analysis (PDF 71 kb)
Results: GIS Modelling - Hot Spots Analysis - Figure 10 (PDF 3 MB)
Results: GIS Modelling - Hot Spots Analysis - Figure 11 (PDF 2 MB)
Results: GIS Modelling - Hot Spots Analysis - Figure 12 (PDF 2 MB)
Results: Taxonomically Interesting Results (PDF 86 kb)
Discussion (PDF 150 kb)
Appendices (PDF 1.10 MB)

These reports are only available in PDF format. The FREE Acrobat Reader is required. Any questions or queries regarding the content of the reports should be addressed to Lance Wilkie

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Nandewar Bioregion Scoping Study

Nandewar Reports

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