-We describe the origins, relevance, aims, specifications and sampling strategy of a six-year biodiversity survey of Western Australia's Pilbara biogeographic region (179,000 km 2 ). During the project, 422 terrestrial sites were sampled for perennial and annual vascular plants, of which 304 were also sampled for small ground-dwelling mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, ground-dwelling spiders, ants, beetles and scorpions. Ninety-eight sites on waterbodies were sampled for aquatic invertebrates, macro-and microphytes and the fringing riparian vegetation; 508 boreholes were sampled for stygofauna; 69 sites were sampled for microbats; and mammal bone material from 15 late Holocene deposits was identifi ed. An introduction to literature on the region's physical environments and recent land-use history is provided, along with descriptions of the Pilbara's four sub-regions in terms of their different landforms and vegetations.
-A biological survey of the Pilbara biogeographic region was undertaken between 2002 and 2007 to provide a regional perspective on biodiversity patterns as a contribution to nature conservation planning. During this survey, 304 sites were sampled for small ground-dwelling mammals, birds, reptiles, spiders, ants, beetles and scorpions. A further 98 sites were sampled for wetland invertebrates, aquatic macrophytes and fringing riparian vegetation. Data for these two groups of sites were aggregated separately (i.e. terrestrial fauna and wetland biodiversity) and models of turnover in species composition within each data set were developed using generalised dissimilarity modelling (GDM). A wide range of environmental variables was assessed as predictors of compositional turnover -biotic (vegetation cover indices), climate, landform, hydrologic, regolith (soil and geology) and geographic distance. Generally, predictors associated with regolith were the most strongly supported in both the terrestrial fauna and wetland biodiversity models, followed by combined landform/ hydrologic variables, then climate/biotic variables. Geographic distance between sites was retained in the terrestrial fauna model only. The fi nal GDM models explained 46.1% and 58.5% of the deviance in the compositional turnover of terrestrial fauna and wetland biodiversity, respectively. Spatial representation of the coverage of survey sites showed that a large proportion of the core study area was well represented for both terrestrial fauna and wetland biodiversity. However, gaps in the proportional representation of both groups within the 2011 conservation reserve system were evident, particularly in the coastal region of the Pilbara (Roebourne subregion) and the Fortescue River valley (Fortescue subregion). With the addition of proposed reserves (in 2015) within these two subregions, the representation of terrestrial fauna and wetland biodiversity was substantially improved.
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