2016-12-12 General Committee - Attachment 1 to Item 6 - Biodiversity Assessment Report

                                                 Noosa Biodiversity Plan – Biodiversity Assessment Report




                                                                               Lowland Rainforest TEC
                                                                               Remnant Rainforest




Figure 10: Proportion of Noosa’s rainforest vegetation that is the protected Lowland Rainforest TEC

      3.3.2    Saltmarsh
Saltmarshes are typically dominated by salt-tolerant vegetation such as chenopods and grasses on soft
substrate shores within the intertidal zone commonly associated with estuaries, low wave energy
coastlines and embayments (TSSC, 2013). The community provides extensive ecosystem services
including surface water filtration, coastline stabilisation, carbon sequestration, coastal productivity,
nursery habitat, and food and nutrients for a wide range of marine and estuarine communities. Due to the
harsh growing conditions there is a high degree of floral endemism at a species level within saltmarsh
communities (TSSC, 2013).

Saltmarshes are inhabited by a wide range of invertebrate fauna such as spiders, moths, molluscs, and
crabs. These areas are also important nursery habitat for fish and prawns at high tide. Consequently,
these ecological communities provide rich food resources for mobile vertebrates such as insectivorous
bats and birds, small raptors, and migratory birds (TSSC, 2013). Saltmarshes are the preferred, and often
only, habitat for migratory shorebirds such as the common greenshank Tringa nebularia, marsh sandpiper
Tringa stagnatilis, and Pacific golden plover Pluvialis fulva. Saltmarshes are also important habitat for the
native water mouse Xeromys myoides (TSSC, 2013).

Saltmarsh occurs from SEQ, around the southern coastline to Shark Bay (Western Australia). In Noosa
Shire, the TEC occurs as a large complex of small patches ranging from 0.05 ha to 14.4 ha located at the
mouth of the Noosa River and Lake Cooroibah (Figure 11). The saltmarsh complex is a fish habitat area
as well as containing wader habitat and seagrass meadows (SEQ catchments, 2016). Approximately 195
ha of the saltmarsh TEC occurs in Noosa, which contributes 3.1% of the distribution within SEQ.

      3.3.3    Littoral Rainforest
The Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia is a Commonwealth listed TEC that
is known to occur along the eastern coastline of Australia. It is a critically endangered community that
provides habitat for over 70 threatened plants and animals as well as acts as an important buffer to coastal
erosion and wind damage. The community generally appears as a series of naturally disjunct and
localised stands of rainforest and vine thicket on a range of landforms that have been influenced by
coastal processes including dunes and flats, headlands and sea-cliffs (DEWA, 2009b).

Whilst the community is not currently recognised on State vegetation mapping as occurring within the
Noosa Shire, local knowledge suggests that it does occur in discrete pockets along the coastline. This



  © ECO LOGICAL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD                                                                         35