Vertebrate monitoring in the Australian Wet Tropics rainforest at AU10A0 (145.52383017, -17.70292382, 1000.0m above MSL) collected by Transect surveys for birds

Brief description

Rainforest vertebrates have been monitored at permanent monitoring sites across the Australian Wet Tropics rainforest since 1997. Such surveys have been conducted on an ongoing basis across the Spec, Atherton, Windsor, Carbine and Bellenden Ker Uplands from various start dates after 1997 as the scale of sampling expanded to encompass the Wet Tropics region. Vertebrate taxa systematically surveyed include birds, reptiles, microhylid frogs, and mammals (spotlighting).

Notes

This research has been funded in full or part by the below funding agencies: - Skyrail Rainforest Foundation - Birds Australia - Earthwatch Institute - Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) - National Environmental Research Program (NERP) - Rainforest CRC - Australian Research Council - James Cook University Research Advancement Program (RAP) - Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA) - National Geographic - National Science Foundation - Queensland Smart State Program

Bird surveys consisted of walking for exactly 30 min along a 150-m transect (measured using a hip chain) through the rain forest, using both visual observations and bird calls to identify species. Only calls made within ~50 m of the transect line were recorded. As much care as possible was taken to avoid double-counting of calling individuals. Surveys were conducted only if environmental conditions on the sampling day were suitable enough to ensure that daily conditions did not bias the results; for example, no surveys were conducted in rain or strong winds. Subsets of abundance counts using the same standardized techniques have been used in analyses elsewhere (Shoo et al. 2005a, 2005b; Williams and Middleton 2008).

Rainforest vertebrates have been monitored at permanent monitoring sites across the Australian Wet Tropics rainforest since 1997. Such surveys have been conducted on an ongoing basis across the Spec, Atherton, Windsor, Carbine and Bellenden Ker Uplands from various start dates after 1997 as the scale of sampling expanded to encompass the Wet Tropics region. The Wet Tropics rainforest of North Queensland has the highest biodiversity of any region in Australia. While world heritage listing of the area has prevented ongoing impacts from land clearing, our research suggests that the fauna of the region is highly vulnerable to global climate change. Almost half of the unique rainforest fauna could be lost with an increase in temperature of 3-4 degrees Celsius. This is significant as the IPCC fourth assessment report and regional climate models suggest that we will see between 1.0-4.2 degrees Celsius of warming by the year 2070: potentially causing a catastrophic impact on the world heritage values of the region. Ongoing monitoring of the region seeks to understand patterns of biodiversity and to detect shifts in phenology of the vertebrates of the Wet Tropics rainforest. Vertebrate taxa systematically surveyed include birds, reptiles, microhylid frogs, and mammals (spotlighting). When possible, surveys were conducted during each season (specific survey dates available in data).