Abstract for presentation at Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference - A Pacific Response

The conservation of forest fauna depends on understanding its ecology in the context of the multiple threats facing forests, including logging, land clearance and road construction. In species that have large geographic ranges, these threats can differ regionally in intensity and magnitude. In fragmented forest landscapes, we need to understand habitat relationships at the landscape and catchment level. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) provides an excellent animal for identifying similarities and differences in pattern-process-scale relationships within different fragmented forest landscapes within its broad geographic range. Using community-collected data, we applied a cross-regional, generalised linear modelling and hierarchical partitioning approach to determine the relative importance of habitat variables, both natural and anthropogenic, in three catchment management areas of northern New South Wales. In the Namoi CMA, for example, percentage of fertile soil had the strongest positive effect on the probability of koala occurrence, followed by the percentage of forest land. Human population density had a weak positive effect on koala occurrence. Mean elevation had the strongest negative effect on the probability of koala occurrence, but in this case, stream density and road density both had weak negative effects on koala occurrence. Urbanisation on the east coast CMAs continues to be a threat to koala populations, especially where clearing is permitted for development. The highest human population growth areas in New South Wales outside the Sydney region are in coastal areas of the Northern Rivers and Hunter-Central Rivers CMAs, both of which are areas of koala habitat. This study highlights the importance of conserving low-elevation, fertile soil areas with its remaining eucalypt vegetation.