Savannas of Australia and New Guinea

Cook, Garry D.; Bond, William J.; February, Edmund C.; Williams, Richard J.

doi:10.1002/9781119081111.ch3

Cited by 2 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Our limited investigations indicate that the relationship between early grazing marsupials and the immigrating C 3 grasses (particularly forest‐adapted Paniceae/Boiviinellae group, see SI‐10) is an avenue for further study. However, the pre‐historic absence of large herds of grazing mammals (Cook et al, 2019) enabled Recent SSI grasses to spread untrammelled, consumed instead by the ‘global herbivore’, lightning‐strike fire (Bond & Keeley, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the south, the earliest evidence for widespread grasslands dates from the late Pliocene/Pleistocene (Martin, 2006). Two-thirds of Australia's grass genera are thought to have been present only in the past few million years (Bryceson & Morgan, 2022), although today, grasslands and savannas cover 25% of Australia, supporting an extensive grazing industry (Cook et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The contemporary distribution of grasses in Australia: A process of immigration, dispersal and shifting dominance

Bryceson

Hemming

Duncan

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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AimLittle is known about the distribution of grasses throughout Australia. Using endemism as a basis for understanding biogeographical distributions, we hypothesised that contemporary species richness would be the result of environmental factors and dynamic ecological interactions spanning more than 25 Ma.LocationAustralia.TaxonGrasses.MethodsWe mapped the distribution of all Australian grass species and modelled climatic and landscape correlates according to photosynthetic type (C3 or C4), endemism, age in Australia, phylogenetic lineage and traits linked to dominance, using height as a proxy. Age classes comprised ‘Ancient’ (Gondwanan), and three others related to migration during the Sunda‐Sahul Interchange (SSI): Early, Mid or Recent. In some analyses, ‘Ancient’, ‘Early SSI’ and ‘Mid SSI’ were combined into ‘Pre‐Recent SSI’.ResultsOverall, species richness of C4 grasses increased with warmer mean annual temperatures, while richness of C3 grasses was higher in cooler areas. Recent SSI species had strong associations with summer rains and were dominant in the continent's northeast, with Pre‐Recent SSI species concentrated in the southeast, a pattern largely reflecting photosynthetic type (C4 and C3 respectively). Endemic and shared species distribution patterns support a migration sequence in which most C3 Pooideae and Panicoideae genera arrived in Australia before the Pliocene aridifications, followed by C4 Chloridoideae as aridification increased, with C4 Andropogoneae immigrating most recently across Lake Carpentaria's open habitats in the later Pleistocene. Recent SSI shared species were significantly taller than Pre‐Recent SSI endemic grasses.Main ConclusionsThe few grasses present in Australia before the Pliocene grew in cooler areas. The influx of taller Recent SSI grasses contributed to dramatic environmental changes—including creation of the northern savannas—with repercussions for resident taxa. Contemporary methods of fuel management could be promoting invasion by grass, thereby jeopardising the conditions suited to ancient taxa and threatening the region's evolutionary history.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contemporary distribution of grasses in Australia: A process of immigration, dispersal and shifting dominance

Bryceson

Hemming

Duncan

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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“…They consist of open forests, woodlands and grasslands with summer-dominant annual rainfall, where greater than 85% of rain falls in the wet season, followed by a dry season that is longer than 6 months. Their grassy understory comprises a wide diversity of native perennial C4 tussock grasses, and, in high rainfall areas (>1000 mm), annual native Sorghum species may dominate [1]. The woody stratum of Australian savannas is typically dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia), with extensive areas around the Gulf of Carpentaria dominated by the allied genus Melaleuca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The woody stratum of Australian savannas is typically dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia), with extensive areas around the Gulf of Carpentaria dominated by the allied genus Melaleuca. In some systems, Terminalia are the dominant woody plants [1], with several million hectares dominated by the introduced prickly acacia Vachellia nilotica [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sub-tropical systems comprise Eucalyptdominated woodlands, with an understory of perennial C4 tussock grasses and increasing C3 grass components further southward. In the north-east, savannas fringe the fire-sensitive rainforests of the Wet Tropics, with a thin band of tall Eucalypt wet sclerophyll forest along its western boundary [1]. The abundance and species composition of woody vegetation in savannas is primarily determined by soils and climate [4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Ecological Separation of Deer and Domestic, Feral and Native Mammals in Tropical Northern Australia—A Review

Murray,

Nevard

2024

Animals

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We explored the ecological and historical factors that led to formation of the unique guild of native and introduced mammalian herbivores between 5 and 1000 kg in northern Australia. Following the disappearance of large native herbivores about 46 kya, and until the arrival of Europeans and their livestock, the only herbivorous mammals were mid-sized endemic marsupial macropods, which continued to utilise the same vegetation as their much larger former neighbours. Only one species of contemporary native herbivore has an adult bodyweight approaching 100 kg, and for the past 150–200 years, the total biomass of introduced domestic and wild vertebrate herbivores has massively exceeded that of native herbivorous species. We conclude that the current guild of native and introduced mammalian herbivores differentially utilises the landscape ecologically. However, climate- and anthropogenically related changes due to fire, drought, flooding, predation and introduced weeds are likely to have significant impacts on the trajectory of their relative ecological roles and populations. Given their differing ecological and dietary characteristics, against this backdrop, it is unclear what the potential impact of the dispersal of deer species could have in northern Australia. We hence focus on whether sufficient knowledge exists against which the potential impacts of the range expansion of three deer species can be adequately assessed and have found a dearth of supporting evidence to inform appropriate sustainable management. We identify suitable research required to fill the identified knowledge gaps.

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Savannas of Australia and New Guinea

Cited by 2 publications

References 100 publications

The contemporary distribution of grasses in Australia: A process of immigration, dispersal and shifting dominance

The contemporary distribution of grasses in Australia: A process of immigration, dispersal and shifting dominance

The Ecological Separation of Deer and Domestic, Feral and Native Mammals in Tropical Northern Australia—A Review

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