DOCSLIB.ORG

Directed Research SFS 4910

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Directed Research SFS 4910 Dr. Sigrid Heise-Pavlov Associate Professor Dr. Justus Kithiia Dr. Catherine Pohlman Office hours by appointment The School for Field Studies (SFS) Centre for Rainforest Studies Queensland, Australia This syllabus may develop or change over time based on local conditions, learning opportunities, and faculty expertise. Course content may vary from semester to semester. www.fieldstudies.org © 2018 The School for Field Studies F18 Center Research Direction The Centre for Rainforest Studies’ research plan addresses the question: How can the future of the Wet Tropics in a changing world be ensured? Staff and students of SFS-CRS investigate this topic by engaging in research under three core components: 1. Understanding ecological and social systems; 2. Conflict, vulnerability and change; 3. Effective response to change. Through our research, we aim to assist a range of stakeholders and research partners. These include local landholders; non-government conservation organisations conducting rainforest restoration or having a special interest in flora and fauna; several levels of government, particularly local and state government; regional research organisations, including universities and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. We aim to improve stability, sustainability, environmental awareness, and concern for natural resources in the Wet Tropics, in particular on the Atherton Tablelands. Our goal is to strengthen research, technical and practical collaboration between SFS-CRS and other research organizations, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations to carry out this agenda. Course Overview The aim of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to apply ecological, biological, and/or social-scientific methods to a field research project that addresses a local issue related to the environment. This course prepares students to distinguish hidden assumptions in scientific approaches. We will also investigate the ways that various methods and theories differentiate (or do not) fact from interpretation, cause from correlation, and advocacy from objectivity. Through the Directed Research projects, students will contribute to a growing body of scientific research that informs local conservation and resource management decisions and furthers the Center’s research agenda. Each student will join a faculty-led team that will carry out field research, data analysis, and communication of results in one or across several of the following disciplines: ecology, natural resource management, and social sciences. The Directed Research course is designed to build on the information students have learned in the topical courses as well as Directed Research lectures and workshops specifically designed to assist students in understanding the scientific process, testing hypotheses and presenting results in both written and spoken formats (see below for these courses). Some of the research projects being conducted this semester are still being finalized, pending discussions with collaborators and the outcomes of Scientific Purposes and ethics applications. Please be aware that the following DR topics are from the previous semester and may change in future terms based on local conditions, research permits, learning opportunities, and faculty expertise. 2 1. Project Supervisor: Catherine Pohlman Dr. Catherine Pohlman will continue research on Topic 1.4.1: Dynamic rainforest boundaries and the enigma of wet sclerophyll forests. Rainforest and savanna are considered to constitute two alternate stable ecosystem states in many tropical landscapes, with boundaries between these two states mediated by fire. Rainforest has been observed to be expanding into savanna around the tropics over the past half century, although the causes of this expansion are still hotly debated. Leading hypotheses include (1) changes in fire regime (e.g., due to the discontinuation of Indigenous burning practices, or changes in land management practices), (2) overgrazing, and (3) increasing atmospheric pCO2 providing a competitive advantage to rainforest over savanna. In Australia, an additional ecosystem type sometimes occurs between the boundaries of rainforest and savanna. Wet sclerophyll forests, also known as tall open forests, have puzzled scientists for many decades. These forests occur in a thin strip on the western edge of rainforests that extends from northeastern Queensland to the southernmost parts of Tasmania. The canopy of these forests is composed of very tall Eucalyptus species (e.g., E. grandis, E. regnans, E. obliqua, E. delegatensis, E. pilularis, E. viminalis, E. resinifera, E. pellita), while the understorey may be composed of grasses and sclerophyll shrubs, or even immature rainforest species. Scientists are divided on whether wet sclerophyll forests represent (1) the tallest and wettest variety of sclerophyll forests and woodlands (widespread flammable vegetation that dominates most of Australia), (2) the driest variety of rainforest (fire-sensitive vegetation), or (3) a transitional state between flammable sclerophyll vegetation and fire-sensitive rainforest. For this project, we will examine the vegetation structure, floristic composition and plant functional traits of (1) transects between savanna, wet sclerophyll and rainforest and (2) transects between savanna and rainforest (i.e., ecotones where wet sclerophyll vegetation does not occur) on the Atherton Tablelands. We will also attempt to reconstruct a preliminary fire history across these transects. This project falls within Component 1 of the CRS five-year research plan (Understanding social and ecological systems). We will attempt to address some of the following questions: • How are species composition and vegetation structure related to fire history? • Are all types of wet sclerophyll vegetation functionally similar? A number of different plant assemblages have been classified as “wet sclerophyll” but these assemblages are known to differ markedly in species composition and vegetation structure. Perhaps these assemblages also differ in their functional traits and ecology? • Some scientists have expressed concern that rainforest may be “colonizing” wet sclerophyll forest. Are these concerns warranted, or are we merely observing a normal part of the ecology of these forests? What are the historical patterns of rainforest colonization of wet sclerophyll forests? Are these driven by changes in fire regimes, or perhaps by increasing atmospheric CO2, or both? • Is wet sclerophyll vegetation expanding into dry sclerophyll and savannah vegetation, perhaps in a manner similar to the expansion of rainforest into wet sclerophyll? • What ecological patterns and processes are involved in the expansion of rainforest into savanna (with or without the presence of wet sclerophyll vegetation)? 3 2. Project Supervisor: Sigrid Heise-Pavlov Professor Dr. Sigrid Heise-Pavlov will offer Directed Research projects linked to the SFS-CRS Strategic Research Plan Topic 3.2: Monitoring the outcomes of Ecological Restoration Since 2016 CRS-SFS collates and maintains a database on revegetation projects on the Atherton Tablelands (Stieglitz 2016). While the database was originally GIS based, a more user-friendly database in MS Access was developed in Wet 2018 (Collins et al. 2018). This semester’s DR project will add spatial data from older revegetation sites that haven’t been included in the GIS based database, and will increase the effectiveness of the created MS Access database by linking it to information of the spatial database. Because the created databases aim at the identification of best-practice restoration principles, monitoring of the development of the sites is essential and should follow systematic methodological protocols. Results of monitoring will be part of the databases and this semester’s DRs will aim at piloting the monitoring of floristic and faunal elements of restoration sites. Although protocols for monitoring site conditions, forest structure, plant composition and bird communities are available (Kanowski et al. 2010) there is a lack of pre-defined methodologies to monitor other fauna elements on rainforest revegetation sites. However, previous DR projects of CRS investigated the compositions of various invertebrates on restoration sites (Burgio 2009; Morrison 2009; Cathcart 2009; Reynolds 2010; Myers 2010; Farr 2013). These DRs shall be a starting point for a review on methods that had previously been applied to rainforest revegetation sites to develop a tool kit that can assist in monitoring the colonization of restoration sites by invertebrates and vertebrates in a cost-and time efficient way. Outcomes of these DR projects will improve the existing databases on rainforest restoration projects of the Atherton Tablelands and will lay the baseline for the development of a systematic monitoring program of rainforest restoration sites that can be implemented through citizen science projects in future years. Results will help to demonstrate the magnitude and effects of rainforest restoration projects on the Tablelands and will therefore also strengthen CRS’s contribution to community- driven restoration work on the Tablelands. Burgio, K. (2009) Ant genera composition in differently aged restoration sites. - Directed Research CRS-SFS Cathcart, E. (2010) Assessing the suitability of revegetation sites for microchiropteran species in the Wet Tropics.- Directed Research CRS-SFS Collins, K., Hunsaker, W. and Kohlruss-Reuman, P.
Recommended publications
  • Conservation Issues: California Chaparral

    Conservation Issues: California Chaparral

    Author's personal copy Conservation Issues: California Chaparral RW Halsey, California Chaparral Institute, Escondido, CA, United States JE Keeley, U.S. Geological Survey, Three Rivers, CA, United States ã 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. What Is Chaparral? 1 California Chaparral Biodiversity 1 Chaparral Community Types 1 Measuring Chaparral Biodiversity 4 Diversity Within Individual Plant Taxa 5 Faunal Diversity 5 Influence of Geology 7 Influence of Climate 7 Influence of Fire 8 Impact of Climate Change 10 Preserving Chaparral Biodiversity 10 References 10 What Is Chaparral? Chaparral is a diverse, sclerophyllous shrub-dominated plant community shaped by a Mediterranean-type climate (hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters), a complex mixture of relatively young soils (Specht and Moll, 1983), and large, infrequent, high-intensity fires (30–150 year fire return interval) (Keeley and Zedler, 2009; Keeley et al., 2004; Lombardo et al., 2009). Large expanses of dense chaparral vegetation cover coastal mesas, canyons, foothills, and mountain slopes throughout the California Floristic Province (Figure 1), southward into Baja California, and extending north into the Rogue River Valley of southwest Oregon. Disjunct patches of chaparral can also be found in central and southeastern Arizona and northern Mexico (Keeley, 2000). Along with the four other Mediterranean-type climate regions of the world with similar shrubland vegetation (Central Chile, Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, and southwestern Australia) (Table 1), California has been designated a biodiversity hot spot (Myers et al., 2000). Twenty-five designated locations in all, these hot spots have exceptional concentrations of endemic species that are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat (Myers et al., 2000; Rundel, 2004).
  • Woodlands of the Savanna Lands No

    Woodlands of the Savanna Lands No

    Tropical Topics An interpretive newsletter for the tourism industry Woodlands of the savanna lands No. 71 December 2001 Conserving moisture Notes from the Life is tough for plants living in the seasonally dry tropics. Soils arepoorandforhalftheyearthelandisparchedandproneto Editor fireswhilefortheotherhalfitisinundatedwithwater.Only Millions of years ago, much of the plantswhichhavebeenabletoadapttothispunishingregime Australian continent was covered cangrowhere,havingdevelopedcertaincharacteristicsto with rainforest. However, as the makethispossible. climate changed and the continent became more arid, a new type of While trees in the rainforest tend to It seems that these vegetation evolved consisting of have spreading surface roots to make trees are simply using plants which adapted themselves the most of nutrients available on the different survival to the new harsh conditions – forest floor, those in savanna lands strategies. It is as if they notably eucalypts, acacias, generally have deep root systems, to make the choice between melaleucas, grevilleas and reach deep reserves of water. Some investing energy into producing a banksias. trees concentrate their resources in the strong, long-lasting product or early stages of growth on developing numerous poor-quality disposable These types of trees now occupy a deep and massive tap root. ones. Studies have shown that the much of the savanna lands. This ‘construction costs’ to a tree for Tropical Topics cannot, of course, Once obtained, water must be used production of deciduous leaves are describe them all but looks at economically. The thick bark on many lower than the costs of producing strategies for living in an tropical woodland trees, apart from evergreen leaves. inhospitable environment, giving protection from fire, can help to characteristics of the main groups conserve moisture.
  • The Chaparral Vegetation in Mexico Under Nonmediterranean Climate: the Convergence and Madrean-Tethyan Hypotheses Reconsidered1

    The Chaparral Vegetation in Mexico Under Nonmediterranean Climate: the Convergence and Madrean-Tethyan Hypotheses Reconsidered1

    American Journal of Botany 85(10): 1398±1408. 1998. THE CHAPARRAL VEGETATION IN MEXICO UNDER NONMEDITERRANEAN CLIMATE: THE CONVERGENCE AND MADREAN-TETHYAN HYPOTHESES RECONSIDERED1 ALFONSO VALIENTE-BANUET,2,4 NOEÂ FLORES-HERNAÂ NDEZ,2 MIGUEL VERDUÂ ,3 AND PATRICIA DAÂ VILA3 2Instituto de EcologõÂa, Universidad Nacional AutoÂnoma de MeÂxico, Apartado Postal 70±275, UNAM, 04510 MeÂxico, D.F.; and 3UBIPRO, ENEP-Iztacala, Universidad Nacional AutoÂnoma de MeÂxico, Apartado Postal 314, MeÂxico, 54090, Tlalnepantla, MeÂxico A comparative study between an unburned evergreen sclerophyllous vegetation located in south-central Mexico under a wet-summer climate, with mediterranean regions was conducted in order to re-analyze vegetation and plant characters claimed to converge under mediterranean climates. The comparison considered ¯oristic composition, plant-community struc- ture, and plant characters as adaptations to mediterranean climates and analyzed them by means of a correspondence analysis, considering a tropical spiny shrubland as the external group. We made a species register of the number of species that resprouted after a ®re occurred in 1995 and a distribution map of the evergreen sclerophyllous vegetation in Mexico (mexical) under nonmediterranean climates. The TehuacaÂn mexical does not differ from the evergreen sclerophyllous areas of Chile, California, Australia, and the Mediterranean Basin, according to a correspondence analysis, which ordinated the TehuacaÂn mexical closer to the mediter- ranean areas than to the external group. All the vegetation and ¯oristic characteristics of the mexical, as well as its distribution along the rain-shadowed mountain parts of Mexico, support its origin in the Madrean-Tethyan hypothesis of Axelrod. Therefore, these results allow to expand the convergence paradigm of the chaparral under an integrative view, in which a general trend to aridity might explain ¯oristic and adaptive patterns detected in these environments.
  • Season of Burn Effects in Southern California Chaparral

    Season of Burn Effects in Southern California Chaparral

    Paper presented at 2nd Interface Between Ecology and Land Development in California conference, 18-19 April 1997, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA; Jon E. Keeley, coordinator. Season of Burn Effects in Southern California Chaparral Jan L. Beyers and Carla D. Wakeman Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Riverside, CA 92507 Tel. (909) 680-1527; Fax (909) 680-1501 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. Prescribed burning for fuel reduction is most safely implemented during the wet season or early summer in southern California chaparral. Previous studies suggest that wet season burns result in poor germination of fire-dependent species and that growing season burns may reduce sprouting vigor of shrubs. We examined vegetation recovery after March, June, and November prescribed fires at different sites, and after spring and fall wildfires in a single area. At all sites, good germination of obligate-seeding Ceanothus was observed, and herbaceous species with both heat- and charate-stimulated germination were found. Shrub sprouting percentage tended to be lower after the late spring burn than the fall burns. Fire intensity and postfire weather patterns may also affect chaparral regeneration response. Keywords: Adenostoma fasciculatum, Ceanothus, chamise, fire effects, fire-followers, fire intensity, prescribed fire Introduction Chaparral is the fire-prone, shrub-dominated vegetation type abundant in the foothills adjacent to many southern California cities. Shrubs are typically 1 to 4 m (3 to 12 ft) tall with evergreen, sclerophyllous leaves (Cooper 1922, Keeley and Keeley 1988). California’s Mediterranean-type climate is characterized by mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers (Barbour and Major 1988).
  • The Three Mediterranean Climates

    The Three Mediterranean Climates

    Middle States Geographer, 2005, 38:52-60 THREE CONFLATED DEFINITIONS OF MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATES Mark A. Blumler Department of Geography SUNY Binghamton Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 ABSTRACT: "Mediterranean climate" has in effect three different definitions: 1) climate of the Mediterranean Sea and bordering land areas; 2) climate that favors broad-leaved, evergreen, sclerophyllous shrubs and trees; 3) winter-wet, summer-dry climate. These three definitions frequently are conflated, giving rise to considerable confusion and misstatement in the literature on biomes, vegetation-environment relationships, and climate change. Portions of the Mediterranean region do not have winter-wet, summer-dry climate, while parts that do, may not have evergreen sclerophylls. Places away from the Mediterranean Sea, such as the Zagros foothills, have more mediterranean climate than anywhere around the Sea under the third definition. Broad-leaved evergreen sclerophylls dominate some regions with non-mediterranean climates, typically with summer precipitation maximum as well as winter rain, and short droughts in spring and fall. Thus, such plants may be said to characteristize subtropical semi-arid regions. On the other hand, where summer drought is most severe, i.e., the most mediterranean climate under definition 3, broad-leaved evergreen sclerophylls are rare to absent. Rather than correlating with sclerophyll dominance, regions of extreme winter-wet, summer-dry climate characteristically support a predominance of annuals, the life form best adapted to seasonal rainfall regimes. Given the importance of useful forecasting of vegetation and climate change under greenhouse warming, it is imperative that biome maps begin to reflect the complexities of vegetation-climate relationships. INTRODUCTION literature also is replete with inaccurate statements about mediterranean regions.
  • A Multi-Scale, Multi- Proxy Assessment of the Resilience of Cool Temperate Rainforest to Fire in Victoria’S Central Highlands

    A Multi-Scale, Multi- Proxy Assessment of the Resilience of Cool Temperate Rainforest to Fire in Victoria’S Central Highlands

    18 Fire on the mountain: A multi-scale, multi- proxy assessment of the resilience of cool temperate rainforest to fire in Victoria’s Central Highlands Patrick J. Baker School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria [email protected] Rohan Simkin Monash University, Clayton, Victoria Nina Pappas Monash University, Clayton, Victoria Alex McLeod Monash University, Clayton, Victoria Merna McKenzie Monash University, Clayton, Victoria Introduction A common feature of many Australian landscapes is the interdigitation of eucalypt- dominated sclerophyll forest with rainforest. In most instances, the eucalypt forests dominate the landscape, with rainforest restricted to relatively small fragments and strips that are often (but not always) associated with topographic features such as riparian zones or southeastern- facing slopes. However, these patterns reflect the current state of a dynamic system. Over several terra australis 34 376 Patrick J. Baker et al. hundreds of thousands of years, the relative dominance of the rainforests and eucalypt forests has waxed and waned across these landscapes in near synchrony (Kershaw et al. 2002; Sniderman et al. 2009). During periods of relatively warm, dry conditions, the eucalypt- dominated vegetation has expanded and the rainforest contracted across the landscape. When the climate has been relatively cool and moist, the rainforests have expanded and the eucalypt forest contracted. This is, in part, thought to be a direct consequence of the ambient environmental conditions and their impact on regeneration success. However, the indirect influence of climate, in particular as a driver of fire regimes, may be as important, if not more important, in defining the structure, composition and relative abundance of rainforest and eucalypt taxa at the landscape scale.
  • Classification and Description of World Formation Types

    Classification and Description of World Formation Types

    United States Department of Agriculture Classification and Description of World Formation Types Don Faber-Langendoen, Todd Keeler-Wolf, Del Meidinger, Carmen Josse, Alan Weakley, David Tart, Gonzalo Navarro, Bruce Hoagland, Serguei Ponomarenko, Gene Fults, Eileen Helmer Forest Rocky Mountain General Technical Service Research Station Report RMRS-GTR-346 August 2016 Faber-Langendoen, D.; Keeler-Wolf, T.; Meidinger, D.; Josse, C.; Weakley, A.; Tart, D.; Navarro, G.; Hoagland, B.; Ponomarenko, S.; Fults, G.; Helmer, E. 2016. Classification and description of world formation types. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-346. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 222 p. Abstract An ecological vegetation classification approach has been developed in which a combi- nation of vegetation attributes (physiognomy, structure, and floristics) and their response to ecological and biogeographic factors are used as the basis for classifying vegetation types. This approach can help support international, national, and subnational classifica- tion efforts. The classification structure was largely developed by the Hierarchy Revisions Working Group (HRWG), which contained members from across the Americas. The HRWG was authorized by the U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) to devel- op a revised global vegetation classification to replace the earlier versions of the structure that guided the U.S. National Vegetation Classification and International Vegetation Classification, which formerly relied on the UNESCO (1973) global classification (see FGDC 1997; Grossman and others 1998). This document summarizes the develop- ment of the upper formation levels. We first describe the history of the Hierarchy Revisions Working Group and discuss the three main parameters that guide the clas- sification—it focuses on vegetated parts of the globe, on existing vegetation, and includes (but distinguishes) both cultural and natural vegetation for which parallel hierarchies are provided.
  • Eucalypt Open Forest

    Eucalypt Open Forest

    NVIS Fact sheet MVG 3 – Eucalypt open forest Australia’s native vegetation is a rich and fundamental Overview element of our natural heritage. It binds and nourishes our ancient soils; shelters and sustains wildlife, protects Typically, vegetation areas classified under streams, wetlands, estuaries, and coastlines; and absorbs MVG 3 – Eucalypt open forest: carbon dioxide while emitting oxygen. The National • correspond well with ‘dry sclerophyll forests’, but may Vegetation Information System (NVIS) has been developed include some wet sclerophyll forests (mostly classified and maintained by all Australian governments to provide within MVG 2) that do not exceed 30 m in height a national picture that captures and explains the broad • are distributed widely in monsoonal, tropical, diversity of our native vegetation. subtropical and temperate latitudes on soils of low to This is part of a series of fact sheets which the Australian moderate fertility Government developed based on NVIS Version 4.2 data to • dominant trees vary from 10 to 30 m tall and with provide detailed descriptions of the major vegetation groups crown cover 50 – 80 per cent (foliage projective cover of (MVGs) and other MVG types. The series is comprised of 30 – 70 per cent) depending on soil characteristics, local a fact sheet for each of the 25 MVGs to inform their use by moisture and rainfall planners and policy makers. An additional eight MVGs are • are dominated by a variety of eucalypts from the available outlining other MVG types. genera Corymbia, Angophora and Eucalyptus subgenus Eucalyptus, occasionally with Eucalyptus species from For more information on these fact sheets, including other subgenera, notably Symphyomyrtus its limitations and caveats related to its use, please see: ‘Introduction to the Major Vegetation Group • comprise understoreys typically dominated by shrubs, (MVG) fact sheets’.
  • A Spatial Analysis Approach to the Global Delineation of Dryland Areas of Relevance to the CBD Programme of Work on Dry and Subhumid Lands

    A Spatial Analysis Approach to the Global Delineation of Dryland Areas of Relevance to the CBD Programme of Work on Dry and Subhumid Lands

    A spatial analysis approach to the global delineation of dryland areas of relevance to the CBD Programme of Work on Dry and Subhumid Lands Prepared by Levke Sörensen at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre Cambridge, UK January 2007 This report was prepared at the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). The lead author is Levke Sörensen, scholar of the Carlo Schmid Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Acknowledgements This report benefited from major support from Peter Herkenrath, Lera Miles and Corinna Ravilious. UNEP-WCMC is also grateful for the contributions of and discussions with Jaime Webbe, Programme Officer, Dry and Subhumid Lands, at the CBD Secretariat. Disclaimer The contents of the map presented here do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP-WCMC or contributory organizations. The designations employed and the presentations do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP-WCMC or contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area or its authority, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 3 Table of contents Acknowledgements............................................................................................3 Disclaimer ...........................................................................................................3 List of tables, annexes and maps .....................................................................5 Abbreviations
  • Fossil Evidence for a Hyperdiverse Sclerophyll Flora Under a Non

    Fossil Evidence for a Hyperdiverse Sclerophyll Flora Under a Non

    Fossil evidence for a hyperdiverse sclerophyll flora under a non–Mediterranean-type climate J. M. Kale Snidermana,1, Gregory J. Jordanb, and Richard M. Cowlingc aSchool of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia; bSchool of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia; and cBotany Department, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa Edited by Taylor Feild, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, and accepted by the Editorial Board January 4, 2013 (received for review October 1, 2012) The spectacular diversity of sclerophyll plants in the Cape Floristic richness of SWFR cannot be explained by high topographic het- Region in South Africa and Australia’s Southwest Floristic Region erogeneity, because this region has a very flat, low-elevation has been attributed to either explosive radiation on infertile soils landscape (1). Furthermore, CFR, although more mountainous under fire-prone, summer-dry climates or sustained accretion of than SWFR, is more elevationally uniform than the remaining species under inferred stable climate regimes. However, the very three Mediterranean climate regions (1). Instead, authors have poor fossil record of these regions has made these ideas difficult invoked soil infertility (5, 8), unusual climate stability at a range of to test. Here, we reconstruct ecological-scale plant species richness temporal scales (9–11), contemporary landscape and edaphic di- from an exceptionally well-preserved fossil flora. We show that versity (8), Cenozoic landscape dynamics (6), or fire (10). How- a hyperdiverse sclerophyll flora existed under high-rainfall, summer- ever, many of the contemporary features used to explain the wet climates in the Early Pleistocene in southeastern Australia.
  • The Vegetation Communities Dry Eucalypt Forest and Woodland

    The Vegetation Communities Dry Eucalypt Forest and Woodland

    Edition 2 From Forest to Fjaeldmark The Vegetation Communities Dry eucalypt forest and woodland Eucalyptus amygdalina Edition 2 From Forest to Fjaeldmark 1 Dry eucalypt forest and woodland Community (Code) Page Eucalyptus amygdalina coastal forest and woodland (DAC) 11 Eucalyptus amygdalina forest and woodland on dolerite (DAD) 13 Eucalyptus amygdalina forest and woodland on sandstone (DAS) 15 Eucalyptus amygdalina forest on mudstone (DAM) 17 Eucalyptus amygdalina inland forest and woodland on Cainozoic deposits (DAZ) 19 Eucalyptus amygdalina–Eucalyptus obliqua damp sclerophyll forest (DSC) 22 Eucalyptus barberi forest and woodland (DBA) 24 Eucalyptus coccifera forest and woodland (DCO) 25 Eucalyptus cordata forest (DCR) 27 Eucalyptus dalrympleana–Eucalyptus pauciflora forest and woodland (DDP) 29 Eucalyptus delegatensis dry forest and woodland (DDE) 31 Eucalyptus globulus dry forest and woodland (DGL) 33 Eucalyptus gunnii woodland (DGW) 35 Eucalyptus morrisbyi forest and woodland (DMO) 37 Eucalyptus nitida dry forest and woodland (DNI) 39 Eucalyptus nitida Furneaux forest (DNF) 41 Eucalyptus obliqua dry forest (DOB) 43 Eucalyptus ovata forest and woodland (DOV) 45 Eucalyptus ovata heathy woodland (DOW) 48 Eucalyptus pauciflora forest and woodland not on dolerite (DPO) 50 Eucalyptus pauciflora forest and woodland on dolerite (DPD) 52 Eucalyptus perriniana forest and woodland (DPE) 54 Eucalyptus pulchella forest and woodland (DPU) 56 Eucalyptus risdonii forest and woodland (DRI) 58 Eucalyptus rodwayi forest and woodland (DRO) 60 Eucalyptus
  • IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0 Descriptive Profiles for Biomes and Ecosystem Functional Groups

    IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0 Descriptive Profiles for Biomes and Ecosystem Functional Groups

    IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0 Descriptive profiles for biomes and ecosystem functional groups David A. Keith, Jose R. Ferrer-Paris, Emily Nicholson and Richard T. Kingsford (editors) INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE About IUCN IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and some 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development. www.iucn.org https://twitter.com/IUCN/ About the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) The Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) promotes ecosystem-based approaches for the management of landscapes and seascapes, provides guidance and support for ecosystem-based management and promotes resilient socio-ecological systems