Brief description
This collection contains maps of the vulnerability of threatened species in Northern Australia to specific threatening processes across their distribution as well as summary maps describing cumulative vulnerability across different threats and groups of species.
Full description
Successful threatened species management requires knowledge of where a species is present and how it is affected by threatening processes across its range. It follows that vulnerability is determined by 1. How exposed a species is to a threat and 2. How sensitive it is to different levels of that threat. If exposure, sensitivity and vulnerability are known, targeted threat mitigation and management becomes feasible. For example, species A may occur in the Wet Tropics and be sensitive to grazing at medium or high levels because it requires ground cover. If the overall vulnerability of this species is to be reduced, we need to know where its range overlaps with grazed areas, and where grazing is above medium levels. In those overlapping areas, we can then aim to manage grazing at slightly lower levels to permit the species’ populations to recover. This study used previously mapped distributions of threatened species as well as previously mapped threatening processes across Northern Australia, and a sensitivity matrix of species x threat interactions to create maps of species’ vulnerability across their range within Northern Australia. Vulnerability was defined as the product of exposure and sensitivity, i.e. the more sensitive a species is to a threat and the more exposed it is to that same threat, the higher its vulnerability with respect to that threat. In the context of this study, exposure was defined as any areas of suitable habitat that overlap with the presence of a particular threat. Within this area of overlap, different threat intensities or probabilities may occur. To estimate the vulnerability of a species across its exposed range, one therefore needs to have an idea of what its response to these different levels of threat is likely to be. We estimated this based on a previous study using an extensive expert elicitation process to determine the responses of different functional groups to low, medium, or high threat levels. For each threat x species interaction, an exposure map was created (areas of overlap between species range and threat presence). The different threat levels within the exposed areas were then transformed into the corresponding risk of extinction at that threat level for that species in each pixel. Two different outputs are available for any species x threat interaction (if the species was actually sensitive to the threat): exposure (overlap of species and threat) and vulnerability (species estimated response to different threat levels across its exposure range).The outputs discussed above were used to create maps of cumulative vulnerability for each species across all threats, for each threat across all species, and across taxonomic groups. A summary map of cumulative vulnerability across all species and threats included in this study was also produced. For example, the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren (Malurus coronatus) has several outputs describing how vulnerable it is to each threat across its range within Northern Australia. If all of these are added together, we can see how vulnerable the species is over all across its range. If we then add this total vulnerability of this species and all other bird species together, we get a cumulative vulnerability map for birds across Northern Australia. The outputs of this study are intended for use by governments and stakeholders for more effective conservation decisions and threatened species management across Northern Australia.
Created: 2019-07-16
text: Australia
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- Local : 41fd66ea8dfe21fa2f099969d25d6bf9
- Local : https://research.jcu.edu.au/data/published/f434053abfdb9a433d9bcdf63f1e1703
- DOI : 10.25903/5d2d3d79a6837
