Proceedings Of The Symposium On Dynamics And Management Of Mediterranean Type Ecosystems

This volume contains the texts of invited papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Mediterranean Ecosystems (MEDECOS) held in Perth, Western Australia during August 1984. It thus follows three previous meetings, Chile (1971), California (1977) and South Africa (1980). There has been no formal international body to organize these meetings, merely a continuity of purpose provided by the common interests of the scientists concerned in the English-speaking world. Following previous themes on structure, fire and role of nutrients in mediterranean ecosystems, MEDECOS was structured around the theme 'Resilience in Mediterranean Ecosystems'. The invited speakers were requested to deal with particu lar aspects of this subject, and offered papers were encouraged to do so as well. This provided a broad framework for discussions which at the same time highlighted many of the major conservation issues arising from extreme natural events and human-induced disturbances in the mediterranean regions. The proceed ings were issued on the last day of the conference and provided two-page accounts of each of the contributed papers and posters (Dell, B. (ed. ) 1984 Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Mediterranean Ecosystems. Botany Dept. , University of Western Australia). This volume was reserved for the review papers whose aim was to explore general principles and unifying concepts at all levels in the study of resilience. Perth, December 1985. VII List of contributors B. Dell 1. E.

Regions with Mediterranean-type climates include parts of California, South America, Australia, and of course, Europe. The effect of global climate change on these heavily populated areas will have major social and political ramifications. This volume addresses issues in these areas, from processes at the leaf level to the individual, ecosystem, and landscape levels. This book will serve to raise awareness on the significance of these types of ecosystems, and on their sensitivity to the threat that global change represents.

From the time of the continent's formation tens of millions of years ago as the Godwana twin of Antarctica, Australia has been dominated by fire much as its sister has been by ice. Now Stephen Pyne, one of our foremost environmental historians, proposes a major reinterpretation of the Australian experience by using fire and Australia to explain one another. He narrates the story of how fire came to Australia and interacted with the Australian biota and its human inhabitants, while at the same time he relates the planetary saga of fire as it has been played out on this special island continent. Much as the Aborigines exploited fire to remake their environment into something more usable, so Stephen Pyne exploits fire to transform the landscape of history into something more accessible, to use its transmuting power to extract new meaning out of familiar events. Pyne traces the impact of fire, from its initial influence on the evolving vegetation of the new continent, through its use by the Aborigines and the subsequent European settlers, to the holocaust of February 1983 known as Ash Wednesday, and he shows us that the dynamic nature of fire has made it a most powerful environmental determinant in Australia, shaping both its social and natural histories. In his critically acclaimed study of Antarctica, The Ice, Pyne explored the myriad dimensions of the cold continent; now Burning Bush offers us an equally absorbing examination of a continent informed by fire.