Land 2014, 3, 1091-1136; doi:10.3390/land3031091 OPEN ACCESS land ISSN 2073-445X www.mdpi.com/journal/land/ Article Landscape Fire, Biodiversity Decline and a Rapidly Changing Milieu: A Microcosm of Global Issues in an Australian Biodiversity Hotspot A. Malcolm Gill 1,*, David J. McKenna 2 and Michael A. Wouters 2 1 Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia 2 South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, GPO Box 1047, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia; E-Mails:
[email protected] (D.J.M.);
[email protected] (M.A.W.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +61-2-6125-0843. Received: 25 June 2014; in revised form: 27 August 2014 / Accepted: 28 August 2014 / Published: 9 September 2014 Abstract: The Adelaide-Mt Lofty Region of South Australia is an exemplar, in microcosm, of the issues confronting biodiversity conservation in a world of increasing population and a drying, fire-prone environment. At just 0.1% of Australia’s terrestrial land mass, this area is largely peninsular and oriented along a spine of ranges to 730-m elevation. Annual average rainfall varies from over 1100 mm in the hills to less than 500 mm on the plains in the north. The original vegetation varied from grasslands to shrublands to grassy and shrubby woodlands to forests, but now includes a major capital city and a mixed farming hinterland. Biodiversity in the region is in decline, and many species’ extinctions have been recorded.