Linking Ecological Communities and Vegetation Types

Ecological communities that are recognised by their assemblage of plant species are also known as Vegetation Types. More information on Vegetation Types are available on DECC’s Biometric web page.

A Threatened Ecological Community may be defined so broadly or over such a large range that it encompasses a variety of Vegetation Types that are specific to a particular region. This may be because they have slight regional differences or have been described by different authors. For example, Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest Endangered Ecological Community on the North Coast includes the vegetation type classified by NPWS (1999) as ‘Forest Ecosystem 143 – Swamp Oak’, but on the South Coast includes three vegetation types classified by Tozer etal (2006) as ‘Floodplain Swamp Forest’, ‘Estuarine Fringe Forest’ and ‘Estuarine Creek Flat Scrub’.

There may be further Vegetation Types classified by other authors for a particular locality that could also align with the assemblage for a Threatened Ecological Community. When identifying Threatened Ecological Communities it is important to refer to the particular Vegetation Type(s) that are specific to your region.

DECC has identified the Vegetation Types that are most closely aligned to a particular Threatened Ecological Community for each Catchment Management Authority (CMA). Check the Threatened Ecological Community profile for your CMA area to identify whether the Vegetation Type you have identified may be part of that Threatened Ecological Community.