Continental Stress Class
Encyclopedia
Continental Stress Class is a method of describing the landscape health of biogeographic
regions in Australia
. There are six Continental Stress Classes with Class 1 containing the most stressed regions and Class 6 the least stressed and therefore most healthy. The classification takes into account indicators of landscape health such as the extent, condition, connectivity, and rate of clearing of native vegetation; changes to soil and hydrological conditions; the presence of feral plants and animals; the presence of threatened species and ecological communities; and threats such as dryland salinity; and fire regime.
Continental Stress Classes were first introduced by Gethin Morgan in 2001, in the report Landscape Health In Australia: A rapid assessment of the relative condition of Australia's bioregions and subregions. Morgan gave a class to each of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia
(IBRA) subregions, as follows:
The classification is now used by a range of federal and state government agencies in Australia.
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...
regions in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. There are six Continental Stress Classes with Class 1 containing the most stressed regions and Class 6 the least stressed and therefore most healthy. The classification takes into account indicators of landscape health such as the extent, condition, connectivity, and rate of clearing of native vegetation; changes to soil and hydrological conditions; the presence of feral plants and animals; the presence of threatened species and ecological communities; and threats such as dryland salinity; and fire regime.
Continental Stress Classes were first introduced by Gethin Morgan in 2001, in the report Landscape Health In Australia: A rapid assessment of the relative condition of Australia's bioregions and subregions. Morgan gave a class to each of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia
Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia
The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian Government's Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts...
(IBRA) subregions, as follows:
- Class One: 17 subregions, including the Avon WheatbeltAvon WheatbeltAvon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...
, the Tasmanian Midlands and numerous subregions in south eastern Australia, including most of VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
; - Class Two: 20 subregions;
- Class Three: 90 subregions;
- Class Four: 75 subregions;
- Classes Five and Six: 152 subregions.
The classification is now used by a range of federal and state government agencies in Australia.