ANHAT - Biodiversity summaries and species lists for NRM regions
Water-holding Frog (Cyclorana platycephala).
Photo: C. Slatyer
What are the biodiversity summaries for and where do they come from?
These summaries have been produced by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities for the Natural Resource Management Spatial Information System.
They highlight important elements of the biodiversity which are significant from a national perspective and taxa which have a significant proportion of their distribution within each NRM region.
The summaries were produced using the Australian Natural Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT), which analyses data from a range of plant and animal surveys and collections from across Australia to generate a report for each NRM region. Data sources include national and state herbaria, museums, state governments, CSIRO, Birds Australia and a range of surveys conducted by or for DEWHA (a full list of these is given in Appendix 2 of each report).
Limitations
ANHAT currently contains information on the distribution of over 30,000 Australian taxa. This includes mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs and fish, 137 families of vascular plants (over 15,000 species) and a range of invertebrate groups. Groups not yet covered in ANHAT are not included in the summaries.
The data used for these summaries have come from authoritative sources, but they are not perfect. All species names have been confirmed as valid species names, but it is not possible to confirm all species locations. The summary summarises the input data, so errors in the data received would be reflected in the summary.
Further Information
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions or contact ANHAT.