Decline of eucalypt trees in tablelands of New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Eucalyptus species are the native and major plant group in Australian landscapes. Since European settlement, eucalypt trees heavily decline in the tablelands of New South Wales. Tree recruitment bog down and the landscape ecosystem hardly recovers to the original state. This paper introduces the history of eucalypt trees and native shrubs decline, analyzes reasons of seedling recruitment decrease in this region, such as clearing grazing, fire, competition from exotic species, dieback, insects, drought and so on, and summarizes the probable conditions of eucalypt tree recruitment, such as suitable conditions of seedling survival, sufficient seed supply, keep from predation, suitable germination conditions, non-grazed environment, mechanical treatment, weed control, fire regime, disease control etc, lending suggests how to preserve and encourage eucalypt trees recruitment in the area.

Keywords

Eucalypt / Decline / Recruitment / S726.29 / B

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