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Land-use change, and habitat fragmentation and degradation threaten ecosystems and resilience
2016 Report Content... fundamental pressure on the environment. It causes the loss, fragmentation and degradation of native vegetation, and a variety of impacts on ...
Figure BIO11 (a) Total loss of extent of vegetation communities in Australia from pre-1750 extents; (b) a fragmentation measure reflecting the change in proportion of vegetation patches made up of less than 5000 hectares
2016 MapInteract with mapDownload as pngDownload dataset Source: Adapted from Tulloch et al. 2015, used under CC BY NC ND 4.0 Figure BIO11 (a) Total loss of extent of vegetation communities in Australia from pre-1750 extents; (b) a fragmentation measure reflecting the change in...
Jurisdictional reporting on pressures
2016 Report Content... jurisdictions—for example, land clearing and vegetation fragmentation, pest animals, weeds, disease and pressures resulting from ...
Pressures affecting the environment
2016 At a glanceTo understand the state and trends of Australia’s environment, it is necessary to consider both the historical pressures that have had a profound impact on the environment, and the contemporary pressures that directly and indirectly influence the state of the environment. Historical changes...
Water quality has largely stabilised, with some signs of improvement, and risks exist from fragmented management efforts
2016 Key Finding2016 Water quality assessment for this report relied largely on water quality analysis and reporting by state, territory and other agencies, unlike the 2011 assessment. Local or regional report card assessments offered insight into water quality in some areas of the country. Water quality...
Interactions among pressures
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity Pressures Few of the pressures documented in this section occur in isolation. Rather, pressures interact in complex ways, often compounding the threat to biodiversity. For example, land clearing...
Overview of state and trends of biodiversity
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity State and trends What has changed since 2011? The list of nationally threatened species and ecological communities has increased, with the addition of 30 new ecological communities, and 44 animal and...
Pressures on the environment can interact and accumulate in various ways
2016 Report Content2016 Pressures The interactions between pressures can result in cumulative impacts, amplifying the threat faced by the Australian environment. There is increasing evidence that pressures interact in complex ways. For example, land clearing removes...
A legacy of extensive land clearing and the current clearing policies in some jurisdictions continue to cause loss of biodiversity...
2016 Key Finding2016A legacy of extensive land clearing and the current clearing policies in some jurisdictions continue to cause loss of biodiversity (including the loss and fragmentation of native vegetation). These factors also impact on soils, waterways and coastal regions.
There is no indication that the major pressures on biodiversity outlined in the state of the environment (SoE) 2011 report have decreased
2016 Key Finding2016The key pressures of habitat clearing and fragmentation, invasive species and climate change remain high on the list of pressures (identified by jurisdictions) that threaten listed species and ecological communities, and biodiversity in general.
Pressures affecting biodiversity
2016, 2011 Assessment summaryBiodiversity Pressures Pressures facing aquatic ecosystemsChanged hydrologyAltered fire regimesPest species and pathogensPressures from livestock productionUrban developmentPollutionGlobal climate change and climate...
The main pressures affecting the Australian environment today are the same as in 2011: climate change...
2016 Key Finding2016The main pressures affecting the Australian environment today are the same as in 2011: climate change, land-use change, habitat fragmentation and degradation, and invasive species. There is no indication that these have decreased overall since 2011. Some individual pressures on...
Regional and landscape-scale pressures: Land clearing
2016 Report Content... pressure on the land environment, causing the loss and fragmentation of native vegetation. Depending on subsequent management, land ...
Australia’s extraordinary and diverse natural and cultural heritage generally remains in good condition, despite some deterioration and emerging challenges
2016 Key Finding2016Nationally consistent information is not available to allow a single cohesive conclusion about the condition of Australia’s natural and cultural heritage, given the diverse and fragmented nature of available data. Expert opinion and limited surveys suggest that the values for which...
Consumption and extraction of natural resources
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity Pressures Murray Darling Tasmania Harvesting of species The impact of harvesting is considered a potential threat to 30 per cent of listed threatened...
Conservation of Australia’s heritage is a shared responsibility that requires collaborative, innovative partnerships between government, corporations and the community
2016 Key Finding2016Heritage is a public ‘good’ that contributes to local communities and the economy, and therefore warrants a collaborative approach. Governments at all levels contribute through identifying, protecting and regulating heritage, by managing many significant heritage places, and by...
Executive summary - Overview
2016 Executive Summary2016In the past 5 years (2011–16), environmental policies and management practices in Australia have achieved improvements in the state and trends of parts of the Australian environment. Australia’s built environment, natural and cultural heritage, and marine and Antarctic environments are...
Risks
2016 At a glanceEven after management actions and resilience are taken into consideration, some pressures can continue to pose a risk to the environment. Identifying and assessing the risk to the environment examines both the likelihood that the impact will take place and the severity of anticipated...
Pressures affecting biodiversity 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceThe pressures affecting biodiversity remain largely consistent with those identified in the 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011 state of the environment reports. The most significant current pressures are clearing, fragmentation and declining quality of habitat; invasive species; climate...
Pressures affecting the land environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceAlthough a changing climate has shaped the Australian landscape and its vegetation, the current rate of climate change is likely to result in changes in the distribution and composition of vegetation communities. Some communities are likely to disappear, and others will be...
Introduction
2016 At a glanceDrivers are the underlying natural and human-caused forces that generate the pressures on the environment. Natural drivers of environmental change include changes in Earth’s orbit, and variation in the amount of solar energy and volcanic eruptions. The human-caused drivers of change to the...
Land pressures - At a glance
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceWhile changing climates have shaped the Australian landscape and its vegetation, the current rate of climate change is likely to result in changes to the distribution and composition of vegetation communities. Some communities are likely to disappear, others will be transformed as...
Executive Summary - Biodiversity
2016 Executive SummaryBiodiversity 2016The value of Australia’s biodiversity is difficult to measure, but biodiversity is a key part of Australia’s national identity, and is integral to subsistence and cultural activity for Indigenous Australians. It is also fundamentally important...
State and trends of the land environment 2016
2016 At a glanceAt a glanceThe area of land managed for conservation has continued to expand, in both private and public sectors. This is partly due to a decrease in the area of native forest managed for production of timber and wood products. The area formally owned and managed by Indigenous Australians...
Box BIO21 Rethinking revegetation resilience
2016 Case Study... flow dynamics that were interrupted by land clearing and fragmentation .
Results have been positive in the short term, and ...
Box LAN3 Bees—pressures and impacts
2016 Case Study... rates of native plants that are associated with fragmentation of habitat and impacts of invasive species . Pollination ...
Vegetation
2016 Report Content2016 Land State and trends Tasmania Forests and woodlands together represent about 16 per cent of the area of the Australian continent (124.7 million hectares); of this, 41 per cent is in...
Reviews of state and regional management
2016 Report Content2016 Inland water Effectiveness of management Murray Darling Great Barrier Reef The Murray–Darling Basin Plan included 2750 GL of water to be recovered from consumptive...
Pressures from livestock production
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity Pressures Livestock production is the dominant land use in the extensive land-use zone of Australia (see the Land report for further information). It is considered a major contributing factor to the...
Evidence of past resilience
2016 Report Content2016 Biodiversity Resilience Much of Australia’s biodiversity is renowned for its ability to deal with massive ecosystem shocks (e.g. fire, extended periods of dry or wet, extreme weather events such as cyclones)....
