Environmental, landscape and social predictors of native grassland loss in western Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Understanding the causes, processes and ecological consequences of land use change is a conservation priority in fragmented, human dominated landscapes but is often difficult due to insufficient environmental and social data or data at different spatial scales. We assessed changes in the extent of relictual native grasslands in western Victoria, Australia, by comparing native grasslands recorded by targeted vegetation surveys in the 1980s and early 1990s, with those present in 2004. Of the 880 ha of native grassland recorded by the earlier surveys, approximately 225 ha were destroyed by 2004. The area of grassland on road reserves was reduced by 169 ha (36%), with 67 ha (32%) and 18 ha (14%)..