The Ecology Of The Forests And Woodlands Of South Australia

Australia's little known woodlands once covered huge areas of the eastern side of our continent. Woodlands are distinguished from forests by the fact that their canopies do not touch, tree heights are usually lower and they usually have a grassy understorey. They support a fascinating and diverse array of birds, mammals, reptiles, frogs, invertebrates and plants, and have been under massive pressure from grazing and agriculture over the past 200 years. In many cases only small remnant patches of some types of woodland survive. Understanding and appreciating woodlands is an important way forward for promoting their sustainable management and conservation. Woodlands: A Disappearing Landscape explains with lucid text and spectacular photographs the role that woodlands play in supporting a range of native plants and animals that has existed there for millions of years. The book is set out as a series of logically linked chapters working from the woodland canopy (the tree crowns), through the understorey, the ground layers, and to the lowest lying parts of landscape – wetlands, creeks and dams. Each chapter illustrates many key topics in woodland biology with text and images, explaining important aspects of woodland ecology as well as woodland management and conservation.

This book summarizes the main discoveries, management insights and policy initiatives in the science, management and policy arenas associated with temperate woodlands in Australia. More than 60 of Australia's leading researchers, policy makers and natural resource managers have contributed to the volume. It features new perspectives on the integration of woodland management and agricultural production, including the latest thinking about whole of paddock restoration and carbon farming, as well as financial and social incentive schemes to promote woodland conservation and management. Temperate Woodland Conservation and Management will be a key supporting aid for farmers, natural resource managers, policy makers, and people involved in NGO landscape restoration and management. KEY FEATURES * High quality chapters from the nation's leading researchers, managers and policy makers in temperate woodlands * New perspectives on the integration of woodland management and agricultural production * Easy to follow format that distills key new insights and lessons for future conservation and management initiatives

Provides the latest information on restoring woodlands, with particular emphasis on plantings as habitat for wildlife.

The river red gum has the most widespread natural distribution of Eucalyptus in Australia, forming extensive forests and woodlands in south-eastern Australia and providing the structural and functional elements of important floodplain and wetland ecosystems. Along ephemeral creeks in the arid Centre it exists as narrow corridors, providing vital refugia for biodiversity. The tree has played a central role in the tension between economy, society and environment and has been the subject of enquiries over its conservation, use and management. Despite this, we know remarkably little about the ecology and life history of the river red gum: its longevity; how deep its roots go; what proportion of its seedlings survive to adulthood; and the diversity of organisms associated with it. More recently we have begun to move from a culture of exploitation of river red gum forests and woodlands to one of conservation and sustainable use. In Flooded Forest and Desert Creek, the author traces this shift through the rise of a collective environmental consciousness, in part articulated through the depiction of river red gums and inland floodplains in art, literature and the media.

Proceedings of the International Symposium, held in Freiburg, Germany, September 18-21, 1989

Losses of forests and their insect inhabitants are a major global conservation concern, spanning tropical and temperate forest regions throughout the world. This broad overview of Australian forest insect conservation draws on studies from many places to demonstrate the diversity and vulnerability of forest insects and how their conservation may be pursued through combinations of increased understanding, forest protection and silvicultural management in both natural and plantation forests. The relatively recent history of severe human disturbance to Australian forests ensures that reasonably natural forest patches remain and serve as ‘models’ for many forest categories. They are also refuges for many forest biota extirpated from the wider landscapes as forests are lost, and merit strenuous protection from further changes, and wider efforts to promote connectivity between otherwise isolated remnant patches. In parallel, the recent attention to improving forest insect conservation in harmony with insect pest management continues to benefit from perspectives generated from better-documented faunas elsewhere. Lessons from the northern hemisphere, in particular, have led to revelations of the ecological importance and vulnerability of many insect taxa in forests, together with clear evidence that ‘conservation can work’ in concert with wider forest uses. A brief outline of the variety of Australian tropical and temperate forests and woodlands, and of the multitude of endemic and, often, highly localised insects that depend on them highlights needs for conservation (both of single focal species and wider forest-dependent radiations and assemblages). The ways in which insects contribute to sustained ecological integrity of these complex ecosystems provide numerous opportunities for practical conservation.

This book summarizes the advances in nematology that have been made during the 20th century and provides perspectives for the development of nematology in the next century. Chapters comprise: plant diseases caused by nematodes; virus vectors; physiological interactions between nematodes and their host plants; taxonomy of insect parasitic nematodes; resistance to plant parasitic nematodes; crop rotation and other cultural practices as control strategies; use of antagonistic plants and natural products; biological control of nematodes by fungal antagonists; biological control of nematodes with bacterial antagonists; biological control of insects and other invertebrates; cost-benefits of nematode management through regulatory programmes; past and current uses of nematicides; and irradiation effects of plant parasitic nematodes.