Vicki Barry at one of her survey sites. Photo: J Gollan © J Gollan.
About the Cedar Creek project
Vicki Barry and her husband Ian, are landowners at Cedar Creek in the Parish of Millfield. Both are passionate about the environment and enjoy their tranquil retreat tucked away against the Pokolbin State Forest. Vicki attended a BugWise workshop at Lake Liddell in February and was happy to be involved in the BugWise project. Much of the land surrounding the Barry’s residence has a history of cattle grazing, but has been left to naturally regenerate over the past 15 years—although there has been some direct intervention from Vicki and Ian, including the removal of weeds (eg. lantana and biddens) and replanting some species that have become uncommon due to past logging e.g. red cedar. This project assessed rehabilitation attempts by comparing web abundance and diversity in regenerating areas and a nearby forest location that was in relatively good condition. Good condition sites were adjacent to nearby Pokolbin State Forest.Results and Discussion
Surveys were conducted over three days (March 15, 23 and May 5, 2008). The most common web type in both rehabilitated and good condition sites were W30 (22% and 29% of total abundance, respectively). A total of 227 webs were counted (59 and 168 in rehabilitated and good condition sites, respectively) and 21 different web types were recorded (14 and 17 in rehabilitated and good condition sites, respectively). Four web-types (W13, 20, 24, and 31) were unique to rehabilitated sites and 7 web-types (W3, W4, W6, W14, W17, W27, W28) were unique to good condition sites. Both mean diversity and abundance were much higher at good condition sites compared to rehabilitated sites (See figures below). Diversity at good condition sites was almost twice the diversity found in rehabilitation sites, and abundance in good condition sites was almost three times higher than that found in rehabilitation sites.
There were clear differences in web-diversity and abundance between rehabilitation and good condition sites, suggesting that 15 years is not long enough to attain a spider community that is similar to those found in good condition sites. Further investigation as to why this might occur could improve rehabilitation practices.
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