kitprendergast's Identifications

Site E: Hotel E4
Deployed: Borer Tree – Post 2019 Fire
Burn date: 9 November 2019
Direction facing: 90 degrees. E quadrant
Vegetation Community: Littoral Rainforest
Structure: Fire damaged canopy. Should be +70% closed canopy but actual percentage of canopy estimated at less than 50%
Vegetation: Banksia integrifolia, Melaleuca decora, Elaeocarpus obovatus, Cupaniopsis anacardioides, Syzygium smithii, Myrsine variablis, Lomandra longifolia, Dianella caerulea var. producta
Post Fire Resilience: Good resilience but fire is an existential threat to Littoral Rainforest. Fire burnt through the entire forest with varying degrees of intensity and it is estimated that approximately 30% of pre-fire extent of rainforest has been lost or seriously compromised.
Photo Notes: Borer Tree. Quadrat size approx. 10cm x 10cm. Difficult to get actual count of occupied holes as some appear to be capped a few millimetres short of the opening. Borer holes within the quadrat line and on the quadrat line have been included as data points in the photos.
23 Sep 2021: Hotel deployed. Occupancy Count: 0. Melaleuca decora, Lomandra longifolia, Dianella caerulea var. producta in flower. Elaeocarpus obovatus, Syzygium smithii in bud
4 November 2021: October Monitoring. Occupancy nil. Lomandra longifolia, Senna, Viola and Lilly Pilly flowering in area.
3 December 2021: November Monitoring. Occupancy 3 - Unusual capping of cavities - capping looks and feels like a form of hardened fungi - capping is bulbous - see profile photo E4 20211203(b) attached. Minimal flowering – Coastal Morning Glory. Native violet.
6 January 2022: 6 January 2022: December Monitoring. Occupancy nil. Flowering nil. Note: The leather fungus, Daldinia concentric (King Alfred's Cakes/Coal Fungus), is growing out of borer holes.
5 February 2022: January Monitoring. Occupancy nil. Flowering nil.
18 March 2022: February Monitoring (delayed by east coast flood event). Occupancy 1 (maybe - see comment). Flowering nil. Comments: Occupancy rates for the borer tree hotel are unreliable due to bark of dead tree delaminating from heart wood of tree. We do not know what is going on under the bark.