This ecological community is typically a woodland with a canopy dominated by Eucalyptus petiolaris and associated with sheltered valleys and lower hill slopes and along watercourses on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.
Eyre Peninsula Blue Gum (Eucalyptus petiolaris) Woodland
Status: Endangered on the EPBC Act list
Government evidence of impact of climate change:
-
Approved Conservation Advice for the Eyre Peninsula Blue Gum (Eucalyptus petiolaris) Woodland
Climate Change Climate change is now understood to pose a serious long term threat to terrestrial; coastal and aquatic ecosystems and to have the potential to change the ecology of these environments.
Climate change not only directly threatens species that cannot adapt it may also exacerbate existing threats; including loss of habitat; altered hydrological regimes; altered fire regimes; and invasive species.
The potential large scale impacts of climate change could influence the species composition of this ecological community through species responses to disturbance and the very nature of those disturbances.
Projected change in temperature; rainfall and evapotranspiration forecast by climate change models on the Eyre Peninsula (DENR; 2010) Measure Year Emissions scenario Low Medium High Change in annual 2030 0.8 0.8 0. temperature (oC) 2070 1.25 1.75 2.
Trends suggest that increased frequency and severity of weather events are likely to adversely affect the hydrological and fire regimes operating on the ecological community.
Weed invasion and potentially altered fire regimes are also reducing the integrity of the ecological community.
These patches are subject to a range of associated threatening processes and edge effects; including increased runoff and other changes in hydrological regimes; weed invasion; grazing and altered fire regimes.
The impact of too frequent; too hot or the exclusion of fire can be deduced from the effects that various fire regimes have had on other Australian eucalypt woodland communities.
Fire regimes may also contribute to the alteration of the understorey within the Eyre Blue Gum Woodland from an open predominantly grassy state to a dense shrubby state (Simon Bey pers.
There are a number of factors that have contributed to this decline including displacement or predation by invasive species and the loss of cover for shelter and food resources from general clearance and altered fire regimes.
For example; modelling for the occurrence of bandicoot diggings by Claridge and Barry (2000) indicate that the species are less likely to be found in habitats with high fire frequency ( years between events).
Once established they adversely affect native species through direct competition or by altering ecosystem processes; such as disrupting food webs or dispersal agents (as when natural pollinators visit weed rather than native species) or changing fire regimes (for instance the establishment of more flammable invasive grass species into a patch).
Perennial veldt grass is tolerant of fire and can significantly increase fire fuel loads (QLD Government; 2011).
They are contributing to a reduction in integrity of the ecological community and their impacts can be exacerbated by the changes to fire regimes noted above.
Weed invasion and altered fire regimes may act singularly or in unison to reduce the integrity of the ecological community.
Trends suggest that increased frequency and severity of weather events are likely to adversely affect the hydrological and fire regimes operating on the ecological community.