Habitat removal – State

Habitat removal – State

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• Pressures
• Management response
• State
• Vulnerability

Physical-chemical state Direct habitat removal from a wetland can affect wetland habitat extent.

This pressure relates to human activities that directly remove areas of habitat or that disturb or damage habitat areas.

Habitat can be divided into 4 zones:

1. The in-water habitat which may or may not be present and includes the water body itself as well as logs, submerged vegetation and the benthic substrate (rocks, pebbles, mud, peat, etc.).
2. The wetland dependent zone which is the area of habitat that has been mapped as a wetland dependent regional ecosystem but is not mapped as a water body. This zone will be under water, or at least waterlogged, for some period of time.
3. A fringing zone which is a 100m wide strip around the wetland.
4. The surface water catchment, e.g. any rain falling in this zone has the potential to enter the wetland.

Biological impact Changes to wetland habitat extent can result in a loss of sensitive species. The primary impact of habitat removal is exactly that, the loss of habitat, which is in itself undesirable. In addition, there are numerous other potential secondary impacts of habitat loss which include erosion, sediment deposition, poor water quality (particularly turbidity), loss of habitat dependent species, loss of connectivity and a loss in visual amenity.

Last updated: 22 March 2013