Terrestrial biology

We survey terrestrial biology to helps us improve our understanding of the natural vegetation and habitat types in our project area.

First we decide where to survey based on vegetation maps of the area.  We look at flora and fauna in terms of distribution, species present, and recognisable communities.

Initial field visits revealed:

• Cloud Forest, including fragmented cloud forest
• Riparian vegetation
• Rocky habitat
• Secondary vegetation; along the lower margin of the cloud forest
• Poor soil vegetation; mainly over the ore body
• Disturbed vegetation (ferns dominant).  These areas have been cleared in the past and are subject to frequent burning
• Agricultural land; the most common vegetation type

The next steps

The next step is to survey each vegetation type. The depth of the survey will be based on the relevance of a vegetation type to each taxonomic group, including Flora, Birds, Terrestrial insects, Mammals, and Amphibian and Reptiles.