LandLearn's newest resource Biodiversity Up Close is now available for free download from the LandLearn website www.landlearn.net.au/resources/bio_up_close.htm

This teaching and learning resource supports teachers, students and community members to audit biodiversity and land management practices within the school ground or bushland and develop action plans to enhance these areas. Biodiversity Up Close supports the Resource Smart Schools: Biodiversity Module of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative - Victoria (AuSSI Vic).

The activity described below is just one component of the Biodiversity Up Close assessment for school grounds. Other measurements include: number of trees and habitat trees, environmental weeds, organic litter, logs and rocks, soil management, flora and fauna species diversity and other actions taken to improve school grounds such as nest boxes, bird baths or vegetable gardens.

Duration and Setting 1 hour in the classroom and the school ground.

Summary
This activity enables students to identify the habitat value of understorey within the school ground.

Student outcomes
This activity will enable students to:

• Understand the importance of understorey in ecosystems
• Collect information from aerial photographs and fieldwork
• Interpret their results and make recommendations about future actions that can be taken in the school ground.

Background notes for teachers

What is biodiversity?
Victoria's Biodiversity Strategy (1997) states that 'biodiversity, or biological diversity is the variety of all living life-forms including plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they all contain, and the ecosystems of which they form a part'.

Why measure biodiversity?
Australia's natural resources are declining faster than we are able to protect and repair them. Issues such as salinity, soil acidity, pollution of waterways by nutrients, and loss of native vegetation are costing agricultural industries and the community billions of dollars (Landcare 2008).

Approximately 66% of Victoria consists of private land. It is therefore important that biodiversity is protected not only within nature conservation reserves but also on these private lands.

Programs such as Landcare support farmers to enhance the biodiversity on their land, which in turn will enhance their productivity. For example, in the meat industry it has been shown that areas of a farm that are protected by vegetation have a 20-30% higher yield than unprotected areas, worth $38-66 more per hectare per year.

Why is understorey and vegetation structure important?
Vegetation can be classified into 3 separate layers: Overstorey (plants greater than 5m tall); Understorey (plants between 5m - 0.5 m); and the Herb layer (non-woody plants less than 0.5m in height). The greatest richness of plant species at a site will almost always be found in the understorey and herb layer level of an ecosystem. These plants are important because they provide a food source and shelter for many animals and create suitable conditions for larger plants to grow (eg. shelter, shade and maintenance of soil moisture and nutrients). Unfortunately, these layers (especially the herb layer) are often the most easily impacted upon by disturbance and are the hardest to re-establish.

next» Biodiversity Up Close - Part 2