Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 A separate creation: diversity, distinctiveness and conservation of Australian wildlife
- Chapter 2 New Zealand – a land apart
- Chapter 3 The ecological consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation in New Zealand and Australia
- Chapter 4 The impacts of climate change on Australian and New Zealand flora and fauna
- Chapter 5 Unwelcome and unpredictable: the sorry saga of cane toads in Australia
- Chapter 6 Invasive plants and invaded ecosystems in Australia: implications for biodiversity
- Chapter 7 Environmental weeds in New Zealand: impacts and management
- Chapter 8 The insidious threat of invasive invertebrates
- Chapter 9 Pollution by antibiotics and resistance genes: dissemination into Australian wildlife
- Chapter 10 Invasive vertebrates in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 11 Freshwaters in New Zealand
- Chapter 12 A garden at the edge of the world; the diversity and conservation status of the New Zealand flora
- Chapter 13 The evolutionary history of the Australian flora and its relevance to biodiversity conservation
- Chapter 14 Protecting the small majority: insect conservation in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 15 Terrestrial mammal diversity, conservation and management in Australia
- Chapter 16 Marine mammals, back from the brink? Contemporary conservation issues
- Chapter 17 Australian reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 18 New Zealand reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 19 Isolation, invasion and innovation: forces of change in the conservation of New Zealand birds
- Chapter 20 Australian birds: current status and future prospects
- Chapter 21 Austral amphibians – Gondwanan relicts in peril
- Chapter 22 Predators in danger: shark conservation and management in Australia, New Zealand and their neighbours
- Chapter 23 ‘Ragged mountain ranges, droughts and flooding rains’: the evolutionary history and conservation of Australian freshwater fishes
- Chapter 24 Down under Down Under: Austral groundwater life
- Chapter 25 Fire and biodiversity in Australia
- Chapter 26 Terrestrial protected areas of Australia
- Chapter 27 Australian marine protected areas
- Chapter 28 Marine reserves in New Zealand: ecological responses to protection and network design
- Chapter 29 Conclusion: conservation onboard Austral Ark needs all hands on deck
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Chapter 1 - A separate creation: diversity, distinctiveness and conservation of Australian wildlife
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 A separate creation: diversity, distinctiveness and conservation of Australian wildlife
- Chapter 2 New Zealand – a land apart
- Chapter 3 The ecological consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation in New Zealand and Australia
- Chapter 4 The impacts of climate change on Australian and New Zealand flora and fauna
- Chapter 5 Unwelcome and unpredictable: the sorry saga of cane toads in Australia
- Chapter 6 Invasive plants and invaded ecosystems in Australia: implications for biodiversity
- Chapter 7 Environmental weeds in New Zealand: impacts and management
- Chapter 8 The insidious threat of invasive invertebrates
- Chapter 9 Pollution by antibiotics and resistance genes: dissemination into Australian wildlife
- Chapter 10 Invasive vertebrates in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 11 Freshwaters in New Zealand
- Chapter 12 A garden at the edge of the world; the diversity and conservation status of the New Zealand flora
- Chapter 13 The evolutionary history of the Australian flora and its relevance to biodiversity conservation
- Chapter 14 Protecting the small majority: insect conservation in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 15 Terrestrial mammal diversity, conservation and management in Australia
- Chapter 16 Marine mammals, back from the brink? Contemporary conservation issues
- Chapter 17 Australian reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 18 New Zealand reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 19 Isolation, invasion and innovation: forces of change in the conservation of New Zealand birds
- Chapter 20 Australian birds: current status and future prospects
- Chapter 21 Austral amphibians – Gondwanan relicts in peril
- Chapter 22 Predators in danger: shark conservation and management in Australia, New Zealand and their neighbours
- Chapter 23 ‘Ragged mountain ranges, droughts and flooding rains’: the evolutionary history and conservation of Australian freshwater fishes
- Chapter 24 Down under Down Under: Austral groundwater life
- Chapter 25 Fire and biodiversity in Australia
- Chapter 26 Terrestrial protected areas of Australia
- Chapter 27 Australian marine protected areas
- Chapter 28 Marine reserves in New Zealand: ecological responses to protection and network design
- Chapter 29 Conclusion: conservation onboard Austral Ark needs all hands on deck
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Summary
Australia is biologically diverse, with around 150 000 described species, representing perhaps 25% of the total number present. However, this biota is more notable for its endemism than its richness (e.g. 94% of Australian frog species are found nowhere else). Australia is distinctive, not only in terms of endemism, but also in terms of evolutionary adaptations (e.g. large hopping mammals) and ecological processes (e.g. nutrient cycling by fire). Distinctiveness is attributed to three principal factors: (1) a long period of geographic isolation; (2) the preponderance of ancient soils low in key nutrients; and (3) an increasingly arid and inherently unpredictable climate. Australia is also unfortunately distinctive in the scale of biodiversity loss since European settlement with 98 species and subspecies listed as extinct, and a further 1700 threatened with extinction. Both for historical extinctions and currently threatened species, habitat loss and introduced species are the key threats, while climate change is the emerging and possibly most significant threat of the twenty-first century. In the face of these perils, Australia’s distinctive wildlife needs special attention because it makes such a large contribution to the biodiversity and cumulative evolutionary history of the planet.
Introduction
Australia is a biologically unusual continent. This is easily shown by a few examples such as the presence of large hopping marsupials, the prevalence of fire-adapted vegetation, and the sheer diversity of arid-zone lizards. Entire groups of organisms are found nowhere else. Many more are largely confined to the Australian continent, with only a few representatives on nearby islands, such as New Guinea. While visiting Australia and pondering the unusual Australian animals, Charles Darwin wrote in his diary: “An unbeliever in everything beyond his own reason, might exclaim ‘Surely two distinct creators must have been at work …’” (p. 402 of Darwin, 2001). The Australian fauna was so different from that found in Europe, Asia or the Americas, it was as though it was created completely separately from that elsewhere. Of course, Darwin was essentially correct in that Australian wildlife, to a large extent, have been ‘created’ separately. This separateness, however, was not the work of a separate supernatural entity, but rather the result of a long period of independent evolution on an isolated continent subjected to significant and unusual environmental change.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Austral ArkThe State of Wildlife in Australia and New Zealand, pp. 1 - 23Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
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