National Recovery Plan for the Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia ecological community

Abbreviations

AMLR	Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges (NRM Board/Region)
CITES	Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
DEH	former Department for Environment and Heritage (South Australian Government)
DENR	Department of Environment and Natural Resources (South Australian Government) (formerly DEH)
DSEWPaC	Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (Australian Government)
EPBC Act	Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Commonwealth)
ESP	Environmental Stewardship Program (Australian Government Caring for our Country)
GIS	Geographic Information System
INTG	Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland
IUCN	International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
NPW Act	National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972
N&Y	Northern and Yorke (NRM Board/Region)
NRM	Natural Resources Management
NRM Act	Natural Resources Management Act 2004
NV Act	Native Vegetation Act 1991
NVC	Native Vegetation Council
PBGW	Peppermint Box Grassy Woodland
PBT	Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard
SA MDB	South Australian Murray Darling Basin (NRM Board/Region)
SEB	Significant Environmental Benefit
WWF	World Wide Fund for Nature

Glossary

Annual	referring to plant species, a plant that completes its life cycle from germination to seeding in one year and then dies
Area of occupancy	the total area within its natural range actually occupied by the ecological community
Broad-leaved (plant)	referring to plant species in the dicotyledonous group of plants; i.e. plants which have a pair of seed leaves or cotyledons
Broad-leaved herbaceous species	an attribute used in Condition Class assessment of INTG remnants, referring to native plant species which are broad-leaved plants having a herbaceous growth form
Condition Class	a state of the INTG defined in the EPBC Act Listing Advice and based on native plant species diversity, composition and native perennial tussock density. Three Condition Class categories have been defined, representing high quality remnants (A), moderate quality remnants (B) and degraded remnants with potential for restoration (C)
Dominant species	species which make up a large proportion of biomass, or numbers of organisms, in a community; in vegetation, the most common and characteristic species in the uppermost stratum of the plant community, excluding emergent species
Ecological community	a naturally occurring assemblage of inter-dependent plant and animal species, characterised by a unique combination of species composition, structure and habitats, and determined by or associated with physical factors such as soil type, position in the landscape, climate and water availability
Emergent species	plants that rise up above the dominant upper stratum of the plant community, generally widely spaced and with total canopy cover less than 5%
Environmental offset	pertaining to the EPBC Act, an agreed action taken outside a development site, to compensate for direct, indirect or consequential impacts of the development on a matter or matters protected by the EPBC Act; can include direct on-ground actions and indirect actions to improve knowledge, understanding or management for conservation outcomes
Floristic	pertaining to the types, numbers and distribution of plant species in a particular area
Forb	a herbaceous (non-woody) plant other than grasses, sedges and rushes
Herb	a plant which does not develop a woody stem
Herbaceous	referring to the growth form of plant species; species which do not develop a woody stem
Integrity	(of the ecological community) the capacity of INTG remnants to support and maintain species composition, diversity and functional organisation similar to undisturbed examples of the ecological community
Long term	in relation to recovery of the ecological community, 50 years or more
Medium term	in relation to recovery of the ecological community, in the next 10 to 50 years
Perennial	referring to plant species, a plant that lives for more than two years before completing its life cycle from germination to seeding; may be short-lived, or long-lived with repeated annual cycles of flowering and seeding
Polygon	in GIS, an area bounded by a closed line, used to represent a feature on a map (e.g. an INTG remnant, or a continuous area of a floristic vegetation group) and linked to a data reference point inside the boundary
Priority remnants	INTG remnants and habitat areas that are significant and critical for the long-term persistence of the ecological community
Set stocking	referring to a stock grazing regime where the animals are placed on a fixed area and held at a consistent stock density without adjustment; also referred to as continuous grazing
Short term	in relation to recovery of the ecological community, over the next 10 years; the period of this recovery plan
Significant Environmental Benefit	pertaining to the NV Act, a negotiated activity to offset the loss of habitat, biodiversity and/or environmental values associated with native vegetation clearance approved under the NV Act; can include protection, active management or restoration of remnants, revegetation to recreate a functioning ecosystem, or payment into the Native Vegetation Fund for on-ground work elsewhere