4. A draft description for this ecological community was made available for expert and public comment for a minimum of 30 business days. The Committee and Minister had regard to all public and expert comment that was relevant to the consideration of the ecological community.
1.The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) was established under the EPBC Act and has obligations to present advice to the Minister for the Environment (the Minister) in relation to the listing and conservation of threatened ecological communities, including under sections 189, 194N and 266B of the EPBC Act. 1
1.Description of the ecological community 4
1.1Name of the ecological community 4
1.2Location and physical environment 4
Some sites may also contain non-grassland native vegetation on the margins of the grassland or interspersed as pockets within the grassland. These are detailed in Appendix B. 5
1.3Climate 5
1.4Vegetation 6
1.4.1Trees and large woody shrubs] 6
1.4.2Ground layer [grasses, forbs and low (< 1 m tall) shrubs and herbs] 7
1.5Fauna 10
1.6Key diagnostic characteristics and condition thresholds 10
1.6.1Step 1 Key diagnostic characteristics 11
1.6.2Step 2 Condition thresholds 12
1.6.3Additional considerations 12
1.7Surrounding environment and landscape context 13
1.8Areas critical to the survival of the ecological community 14
1.9Geographic extent and distribution 15
1.10National context and existing protection 16
2.Summary of threats 16
3.Summary of eligibility for listing against EPBC Act criteria 16
4.Priority research and conservation actions 18
4.1Research and monitoring priorities 18
4.2Priority recovery and threat abatement actions 18
4.3Existing management statements and plans 20
4.4Recovery plan recommendation 21
The South East Coastal Plain Grassland appears to occur as a naturally fragmented ecological community and has a restricted distribution within each of its main disjunct occurrences. Although this appears to be its natural situation, the degree of fragmentation renders the ecological community susceptible to localised adverse environmental events. The small size of patches, with most being under 10 hectares in size with large perimeter to area ratios, means that weeds and other disturbances can more easily extend into the core of patches leading to progressive degradation of an entire patch. 39