Bulletin

Issue: March/April 2008

Community

The enigma of highland bogs

A burrowing crab, found deep underground.

There is nothing quite so mysterious as a bog. It is ancient, damp and full of undescribed life. When all else is struck by drought, the bog remains a place where mayflies hatch, crayfish burrow and protozoans proliferate.

Environmentalists can become just as lyrical about these dwelling places as the poets of Ireland who have read bogs as subterranean metaphors for inwardlooking cultures.

Australian bogs have fine views and are less dominated by individual species than their European counterparts, says one admirer, La Trobe environmentalist Dr Phil Suter.

Some sit on tops of hills or on slopes, earning them the names of 'perched' or 'hanging' bogs, yet they are fed by the upwelling of subterranean streams.

Only a handful of scientific papers have been published about Australian bogs, a situation that has prompted the Department of Environmental Management and Ecology at the Albury- Wodonga campus to make an expedition to the Strathbogie Ranges.

In August last year students recorded the biodiversity of species in bogs on three private properties in the ranges. They discovered that in certain groups up to seventy per cent of the species are undescribed in the scientific literature. 'Every bog is different,' Dr Suter says. 'This will make any rehabilitation difficult. If you use one method then you select for particular species.' He says that many of the methods developed in Europe do not apply here. Sphagnum moss, which dominates in the north, varies in distribution in the south.

For student environmentalists, the exciting thing is working with local communities. Their research has gone into a field guide for the local Landcare group. 'It is much harder than you think identifying where one species ends and another begins,' says Dr Susan Lawler, who had the unenviable task of collating the samples for the field guide.

La Trobe students at work in the Strathbogie Ranges.

She estimates there were 20-30 species of algae, a similar number of microscopic plant species called diatoms and hundreds of insects.

'This is just the first step,' she says, 'in finding out what's there. It's quite surprising that we found such diversity in what were really just green patches on farmers' paddocks. We pushed aside sheep, climbed fences and got down on our hands and knees in the mud.' The La Trobe scientists were invited onto the properties by the farmers. Up until now the bogs have been secret places.

They raise issues, says Dr Lawler, about conservation. The bogs have kept the farmers going during the drought yet she cannot help wonder how they would bounce back if stock were fenced out.

Dr Doug Robinson, regional manager for the Trust for Nature, says he is delighted with the University's involvement in the perched bog project.

'These bogs are unique ecosystems which are beginning to reveal new species for Australia, as well as a host of specialised animals and plants that depend on these particular boggy wetlands,' he says.

'More than seventy per cent of our bogs have been destroyed and every remaining one is extremely important as a refuge for these specialised species of bog wildlife. La Trobe's commitment to identifying some of these species has created much interest among landholders and Landcare in the Strathbogie Ranges and we believe it will enthuse locals to help protect these unique bogs.'