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

                                                  Noosa Biodiversity Plan – Biodiversity Assessment Report




4         Biodiversity Threats
The Noosa Shire is a unique area that demonstrates a balanced relationship between humans and the
environment, promoting harmony between people and nature through education, conservation and
sustainable development. For this reason it is internationally recognised as a Biosphere Reserve and
has been able to retain significant environmental values whilst other areas across the SEQ region have
undergone significant development.

However, Noosa’s biodiversity values are under pressure from a variety of threatening processes. Due
to the significance of some of these biodiversity values, the potential consequence of these threatening
processes are considerable and important. The key relevant threats identified within the Noosa Shire
include:

      •    Climate change
      •    Invasive species incursion
      •    Vegetation clearing, particularly within rural areas (potential threat to landscape connectivity,
           riverine wetlands, Lowland Rainforest TEC)
      •    Degrading processes such as erosion and sedimentation of waterways
      •    Inappropriate fire regimes
      •    Recreational use
      •    Habitat fragmentation and barrier effects to key habitat nodes and ecological corridors
      •    Conflicts between humans and wildlife, particularly in the more urbanised areas of the shire and
           with increasing visitation.


4.1       Cl im at e ch a n g e
The SEQ region is one of two climate change vulnerability hot spots in Australia (Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007). As a low-lying coastal area in SEQ, Noosa Shire has high exposure
and sensitivity to the impacts of climate change (Noosa Biosphere, 2012). These impacts will occur across
the Noosa Shire, but will be most prominent in coastal areas, wet lowland forests and riparian zones.
Whilst some of Noosa’s biodiversity values will be able to adapt to climate change through distribution
and behaviour changes, many species and ecosystems are particularly vulnerable because they are at
their distributional or physiological limits.

The Noosa region’s climate has already changed, with consistent trends that can be tracked over the last
100 years. The area is currently experiencing increases in temperature of 0.4-0.6oC every 10 years
(Steffen et al., 2009) with mean temperature anomalies increasing (Figure 21). Overall, Noosa’s mean
temperature has increased by around 10C since 1910 (CSIRO, 2015).




    © ECO LOGICAL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD                                                                      54