Refugia for Biological Diversity in Arid and Semi-arid Australia

The data comprises the digitised boundaries for Refugia cited in Morton et al. (1995). Several types of refugia are defined to take into account the fact that different concepts may be involved in the idea of a refuge. A total of 9 categories were defined : Islands, Mound springs, Caves, Wetlands, Gorges, Mountain ranges, Ecological refuges, Refuges from exotic animals, and Refuges from clearing. Information on the distribution of plants and animals in arid and semi-arid Australia was surveyed in order to determine the identity and location of foci of biological diversity. These data were used to identify locations thought to constitute refugia. The main value of each refuge is identified, and comments provided on the general values of the refuge, land tenure and threatening processes affecting it. Estimates were made of the importance of each refuge ie. a rating [1-9], and a classification [extreme (ratings 7-9) /highly significant (4-6)/ significant (1-3)] to enable comparisons between them.The digital coverage was compiled from digitised boundaries for all extreme and highly significant refugia, and 6 significant refugia, with the remaining significant refugia selected from the existing Directory of Important Wetlands coverage, along with raster data for the Nullabor Caves and Mallee remnants.The coverage contains the following attributes:refug_no, url, name, category, importance, score.The url is to enable linking of each refuge to its description in a html document.NOTE: This item refers to a dataset with restricted access. The related metadata is available for download as a Word document as necessary. Additional information about this dataset or requests for access to the data should be directed to geospatial@dcceew.gov.au