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Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

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Glossary

Arid

Those areas in Australia that receive less than 250 or 350 mm of rainfall each year in the south and north respectively.

Association

Level V in the National Vegetation Information System information hierarchy. Dominant growth form, height, cover and species (three species) for the three traditional strata (i.e. upper, mid and ground).

Attribute

In a geographic information system, an attribute is analogous to a data element or column in a database table.

Biodiversity

Variety of life forms including the different plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems they form. Biodiversity is usually considered at three levels: genetic, species and ecosystem.

Bioregion (IBRA)

Based on an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia. A complex land area composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystems that are repeated in similar form. Region descriptions seek to describe the dominant landscape scale attributes of climate, lithology, geology, landforms and vegetation. Biogeographic regions vary in size with larger regions found where areas have more subdued terrain and arid and semi-arid climates.

Biomass

The total mass (usually measured as dry weight) of all the living organisms in a given area, population, habitat, or trophic level, often expressed as kg/ha (Meagher 1991).

Broad floristic formation

Level III in the NVIS information hierarchy. The dominant growth form, cover, height and broad floristic code usually dominant land cover genus for the upper most or dominant stratum.

CAR reserve system

A system of protected areas that address comprehensiveness, adequacy and representativeness (CAR) of all its component ecosystems.

• Comprehensiveness: inclusion of the full range of ecosystems recognised at an appropriate scale within and across each bioregion.
• Adequacy: maintenance of the ecological viability and integrity of populations, species and communities.
• Representativeness: the principle that those areas that are selected for inclusion in reserves reasonably reflect the biotic diversity of the ecosystems from which they derive.

Carbon account

See National Carbon Accounting System.

Carbon sequestration

The capture of carbon, particularly uptake and storage in woody biomass and soils.

Catchment

An area of land where run-off from rainfall goes into the one river system.

Class

Level I in the National Vegetation Information System information hierarchy. An upper level of the information hierarchy describing growth form and broad structure of the vegetation (Walker & Hopkins 1990).

Classification system

The systematic grouping of entities into categories based upon shared characteristics (Lund 1995).

Co-dominant

A species that is locally dominant in the sub-association.

Codes of practice

Sets of agreed guidelines adopted by rural industries and the agricultural service sector to minimise the impacts of farming operations on the environment.

Conservation

The protection, maintenance, management, sustainable use, restoration and enhancement of the natural environment.

Community

A natural aggregate of different species of organisms existing in the same environment. While species within the community interact with each other, forming food chains and other ecological systems, they do not generally interact with species in other communities (Meagher 1991).

Cover

The cover produced by the foliage of any vegetation within a defined area.

Database

A collection of interrelated information, usually stored on some form of storage system. A geographic information system database includes data about the position and attributes of geographical features that have been coded as points, lines, areas, pixels or grid cells (Burrough 1989).

Data compilation

The process of bringing data together from a range of sources for validation, analysis and reporting.

Data custodian

The organisation responsible for ensuring the accuracy, currency, storage, security and distribution of a data set. In fulfilling these responsibilities, the custodian is expected to consult with, and take into account the needs of users other than itself. The custodian may choose to delegate these functions while still retaining responsibility.

The custodian of a data set need not necessarily be the holder of the copyright, or the originator of the data, although in many cases the custodian will be both of these (ANZLIC 1996).

Data management

Maintenance and updating of data and information including access and confidentiality, conformity and quality and content.

Data set

A unique and defined data set often developed using similar methods.

Data quality

The characteristics of a data set including its source, purpose and method of collection and analysis techniques used that can be used to assess its 'quality' for a particular application.

Desirable

If information is available, attribute information should be completed.

Distributed system

A network of systems that enable data and information to be maintained by data custodians at a range of locations to a specified standard and administrative arrangements.

Dominant

A common species that is always dominant in the sub-association. It is very frequent and also has the greatest biomass. Any number of species could be dominant (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) depending on the association.

Dominant stratum

The stratum which, because of its physiognomy and relative continuity, dominates the rest of the community in the sense that it conditions the habitats of the other strata.

The most important or characteristic stratum of a particular vegetation type. It probably occupies the greatest 'air' space (Beadle & Costin 1952).

Dryland cropping

Cropping without irrigation.

Dryland salinity

Where water balance has been altered due to changing land use (e.g. clearing of native vegetation for broadacre farming or grazing), excess water entering the watertable mobilises salt which then rises to the land surface. Movement of water drives salinisation processes and may move the stored salt towards the soil surface or into surface water bodies.

Ecological dominance, ecologically predominant, foremost, diagnostic, indicator

Ecological dominance is defined as the species making the greatest contribution to the overall biomass of the stratum, site and vegetation type.

Ecosystem

Community of organisms (that may include people) interacting with one another. Incorporates the physical, chemical and biological processes inherent in that interaction and the environment in which they live.

Edaphic

Characteristics of soil or topography.

Endemic

A species of vegetation type restricted to a specified region or site.

Entry level

The level of detail in the input data set provided by the data custodian. It defines the level of data incorporated into the National Vegetation Information System according to the National Vegetation Information System information hierarchy.

Estuary

An inlet or river mouth that is influenced by tides from the sea and fresh water from land. The area where fresh and salt waters mix.

Erosion

The continuing process of landscape development as a smoothing or levelling of the earth's surface by removal of weathered material.

Natural erosion is due only to the forces of nature; accelerated erosion occurs as a result of human activities. In each case the same processes operate and the distinction is often only a matter of degree and rate.

Extensive land use zone

Areas of Australia, commonly referred to as the rangelands, where human impacts on the vegetation and land are less than other areas or contain areas not used by humans.

Family

A group of allied genera (Boland et al. 1994).

Floristics

A description of the plant species that occur in a defined area or vegetation type.

Formation

The synthetic structural unit to which are referred all climax communities exhibiting the same structural form, irrespective of floristic composition (Beadle & Costin 1952).

Fragmentation

The result of broad scale clearing of native vegetation and the small parts of that vegetation that remain often only as isolated patches.

Freehold

Tenure where land is held for life and owned by individuals or entities.

Genus

The collective name of a group of species possessing certain common characteristics by which they are distinguished from all other (Boland et al. 1994).

Geographic information system

A computer information system for processing, managing and analysing map data.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Gases including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride emitted from particular land uses including land clearing, the energy sector, agricultural activities and forestry.

Growth-form

Habitat of a plant, identified most precisely by the position of its perennating buds (Beadle & Costin 1952).

Height

Measurement from base to top for a given community to derive the average height for a given stratum (Fowler & Fowler 1996).

Information hierarchy

A hierarchical vegetation classification used to standardise the level of detail within a data set, and within and between jurisdictions and to provide a framework for generating outputs (e.g. map products) at various levels. The National Vegetation Information Hierarchy (Version 5) has six levels of classification.

Intensive land use zone

Areas of Australia in the agricultural zones where land is intensively used and native vegetation has been highly modified in many areas.

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction is the name of the State/Territory or country in which the custodian of the data set is domiciled. If the custodian has offices in more than one State/Territory of Australia, the jurisdiction 'Australia' should be used (ANZLIC 1996).

Landscape condition

A value judgement related to the worth of a landscape for a particular land use. Condition is not necessarily equivalent to function. This judgement may depend on the presence of species considered important for a particular land use and may be influenced by cultural or social views or values.

Landscape function

The ability of a landscape to conserve and use scarce water and nutrients.

Leasehold

Tenure where land is occupied by individuals or entities under a lease agreement with a State or Territory government. Often conditions of the lease include the use to which the land can be allocated.

Level

The attribute groupings within the National Vegetation Information System that recognise information of similar spatial, structural or floristic detail.

Life-form

See growth form.

Major vegetation groups

Major structural formations (e.g. woodlands, grasslands) and floristic groups (e.g. acacias and eucalypts) that broadly group Australia's native vegetation.

Major vegetation subgroups

Major structural formations (e.g. woodlands, grasslands) and floristic groups (e.g. acacias and eucalypts) subdivided by climatic and understorey differences that broadly group Australia's native vegetation.

Mandatory attribute

An attribute that must be filled in for successful completion of core attribute information.

Map unit

A set of areas on a map used to represent a defined feature or set of features. Mapping units are described by the map legend (Burrough 1989).

Mapping methods

Information about the mapping sources and base data used to delineate the map/spatial units in a data set. Each data set may be compiled using a combination of mapping methods and sources of information.

Metadata

A written description for a data set. Metadata should conform to the Australia and New Zealand Land Information Council Metadata Guidelines (1996).

Mix

Defines the spatial mix of a map unit. Spatially mixed map units are defined as those that have a number of discrete vegetation types within one mapped boundary (i.e. they are mosaics of some kind or other).

Monitoring

Routine counting, testing or measuring environmental factors to estimate their status or condition.

Montane

Of mountains.

Mosaic

A set of vegetation descriptions describing a map unit. This accounts for the heterogeneous nature of vegetation in a continuum.

National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS)

Provides a complete accounting capability for sources and sinks of greenhouse gas emissions from Australian land-based systems. The system underpins reporting of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions for the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Kyoto Protocol. It also supports emissions trading discussions and provides a basis for emissions projections to assess progress towards meeting international targets.

National coordinator

A body that is responsible for the national coordination of a fundamental data set according to the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure. Responsibilities include ensuring access to data and information, conformity and quality, content, industry engagement, avoidance of duplication and managing confidentiality requirements.

Native vegetation

Generally represents vegetation types that are indigenous to Australia and defined specifically by the purpose of the mapping undertaken. May include modified native vegetation (e.g. some weeds or modified structure).

Native plantings

Planting of native Australian plant species for a range of outcomes including farm forestry, biodiversity conservation, mitigating dryland salinity.

Native regrowth

Natural regrowth of native Australian plant species in an area that has previously been cleared.

Natural resources management

The management of natural resources (e.g. land, water and biodiversity) in an integrated fashion recognising the values of both conservation and productive use of natural resources and striving to achieve sustainability in all resource use.

Percentage cover

The cover of any vegetation converted to a percentage for a given area.

Perennial plant

Plants that live more than one year.

Pre-European/pre-clearing

Vegetation types and extent before European settlement in Australia.

Present native vegetation

Native vegetation existing in the landscape as represented by mapped data sets. The currency, scale, method of mapping affect the vegetation types represented.

Protected area

Defined by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) formerly the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. An area of land or sea specially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biodiversity and associated cultural resources and management through legal and/or other effective means.

Rangelands

Areas of native grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, and tropical savanna woodlands that cover a large proportion (75%) of the arid and semi-arid regions of (outback) Australia.

Recharge

Rainfall that moves through the soil, beyond the roots of plants, to replenish the aquifer.

Restoration

The restoration or reconstruction of native vegetation to its former species composition and condition.

Revegetation

The planting of native species in areas that have been cleared or highly modified. The mix of species may not be the same as originally occurring in that patch of vegetation.

Resolution

The resolvability of features for a given map scale. Scale effects resolution. In a larger scale map, the resolution of features more closely matches real-world features because the extent of reduction from ground to map is less.

Map resolution may refer to a 'minimum mapping unit' or the accuracy at which a given map scale can depict the location and shape of map features (ESRI 1994, Lund 1995).

Riparian/riverine vegetation

Frequenting river banks; growing by rivers or streams.

Salinisation

The process whereby soluble salts accumulate in the soil.

Salinity

The total amount of water-soluble salts present in a soil horizon.

Scale

Map scale indicates the relation between the size of an object on a map and its size in the real world (Burrough 1989).

Sclerophyll

Species that have adapted to lengthy seasonal drought by producing tough leathery leaves to cut down moisture loss by transpiration.

Semi-arid

Lands where rainfall is too low and unreliable for crops to be grown with certainty.

Species

A group of organisms that are biologically capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring. It is the lowest normal taxonomic classification in use (Meagher 1991).

Stratum

A layer in a community produced by the occurrence at approximately the same level of an aggregation of plants of the same habit (Beadle & Costin 1952).

Structural formation

Formation classes defined by growth form and crown separation (woody plants) or foliage cover (ground stratum), and qualified by height class (Walker & Hopkins 1990). The vegetation structure for each stratum is defined by describing the vegetation in terms of the growth form, height and cover (e.g. vegetation which is shrub, less than 2 m in height, with foliage cover 10-30% is classed as 'open shrubland' under the National Vegetation Information System structural formation nomenclature).

Structure

The spatial arrangement of plants within a community (Beadle & Costin 1952).

Sub-formation

Dominant growth form, cover, height and broad floristic code usually dominant genus and family for the three traditional strata. (i.e. upper, mid and ground).

Sub-association

A subdivision of the association determined by a variation in the most important subordinate stratum of the association, without significant qualitative changes in the dominant stratum (Beadle & Costin 1952).

Subdominant

A species that occurs frequently but has a lesser biomass.

Subregion

A subdivision of a bioregion which contains distinctive geomorphic units that closely align with land capability and development potential.

Taxon

A category in the classification of living organisms. The taxa (plural of taxon) in the Linnaean system are commonly kingdom, phyllum, class, order, family, genus and species.

Threatening processes

Those limiting factors that threaten, or may threaten, the survival, abundance or evolutionary development of a native species or ecological community.

Vegetation

All plants within a specified area. It is usually considered generally and not taxonomically.

Vegetation type

A community that has a floristically uniform structure and composition, often described by its dominant species.

Vegetation condition

The current state of ecosystems compared to what would be considered pristine or as defined by a set benchmark.

Vegetation description

Collectively, the levels described in the National Vegetation Information System information hierarchy provides a vegetation description based on a mapped unit of vegetation.

Viability

The likelihood of long-term survival of the example/population of a particular ecosystem or species.

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