The Carnarvon xeric shrublands is a

deserts and xeric shrublands Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (ancient Greek xērós, “dry") shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The ecoregion is coterminous with the Carnarvon

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities. It was devel ...

(IBRA) bioregion.IBRA Version 6.1
data

Location and description

The ecoregion covers an area of 90,500 square kilometers (34,900 square miles) from the bounded by the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

to the west from the

Peron Peninsula Peron Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25°51' S longitude and 113°30' E latitude. It is some long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycine ...

Shark Bay Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...

up to the

North West Cape North West Cape is a peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia. Cape Range runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge. It is in the Gascoyne region and includes the town of Exmouth. History In 1618, ...

. The

Pilbara shrublands The Pilbara shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion in Western Australia. It is coterminous with the Pilbara IBRA region. For other definitions and uses of "Pilbara region" see Pilbara. Geography The Pilbara shrublands is bou ...

lie to the northeast, the

Western Australian mulga shrublands The Western Australian Mulga shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of inland Western Australia. It is one of Australia's two mulga ecoregions, characterized by dry woodlands of mulga trees (''Acacia aneura'' and related species) ...

to the east, and the Southwest Australia savanna to the south. The region is named for the coastal town of Carnarvon and includes a number of coastal towns and tourist resorts. The terrain is generally low, and the vegetation varies with the underlying geology, which consists mostly of recent alluvial, aeolian, and marine sediments over

cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

strata. This is a very dry region with less than 250mm of rainfall per year. The ecoregion covers the on-shore portion of the

Carnarvon Basin The Carnarvon Basin is a geological basin located in the north west of Western Australia which extends from the Dampier Archipelago to the Murchison bioregion, and is the main geological feature that makes up the North West Shelf. The onshore ...

, a physiographic province of the larger West Australian Shield division.

Sub-regions

The Carnarvon bioregion has two sub-regions: *Wooramel, which is a significant part of the Shark Bay World Heritage areaWestern Australia. Dept. of Environment and Conservation. (2007)Shark Bay terrestrial reserves and proposed reserve additions : draft management plan 2007 Department of Environment and Conservation ; Conservation Commission of Western Australia. Bentley, W.A.: Dept. of Environment and Conservation. pages 37-39 section Bioregions and Figure 4: IBRA sub-regions of the Shark Bay Area (map) *Cape Range

Flora

Low

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...

and

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

shrublands cover the saline alluvial plains,

snakewood Snakewood is a common name of several different plants: * ''Acacia'' species (family Fabaceae) in Australia, '' Acacia eremaea'', '' Acacia intorta'', ''Acacia xiphophylla' * ''Brosimum guianense'' (= ''Piratinera guianensis'') (family Moraceae) (L ...

(''Acacia xiphophylla'') scrublands cover the clay flats, Bowgada (''Acacia ramulosa'') low woodland covers sandy ridges and plains, red sand dune fields are interspersed or overlain with tree to shrub steppe over hummock grasslands, and ''

Acacia startii ''Acacia startii'' is a shrub of the genus '' Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodineae''. It is native to an area in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying t ...

/ A. bivenosa'' shrublands cover limestone outcrops in the north. Other trees in the area include limestone wattle (''

Acacia sclerosperma ''Acacia sclerosperma'', commonly known as limestone wattle or silver bark wattle, is a tree in the family Fabaceae. Endemic to Western Australia, it occurs on floodplains and along water-courses throughout the arid north-west corner of the Sta ...

'') with an undergrowth of dead finish (''

Acacia tetragonophylla ''Acacia tetragonophylla'', commonly known as curara, kurara or dead finish, is a tree in the family Fabaceae that is endemic to arid and semi-arid parts of central and western Australia. Description Curara grows as a tall shrub or small tree ...

''). The sheltered embayments and extensive tidal flats along the coast support

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

Fauna

Wildlife of the area includes birds such as the

thick-billed grasswren The thick-billed grasswren (''Amytornis modestus'') is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation. Taxonomy and systematics The thick-billed grasswren wa ...

and the

red-tailed black cockatoo The red-tailed black cockatoo (''Calyptorhynchus banksii'') also known as Banksian- or Banks' black cockatoo, is a large black cockatoo native to Australia. Adult males have a characteristic pair of bright red panels on the tail that gives t ...

. This is also the area where it is possible that there may be a surviving population of the

lesser stick-nest rat The lesser stick-nest rat or white-tipped stick-nest rat (''Leporillus apicalis'') is an extinct species of rodent in the family (biology), family Muridae. It lived in central Australia where it built nests of sticks that accumulate over years a ...

which is thought to be extinct.

Protected areas

Protected areas in the ecoregion include

Cape Range National Park Cape Range National Park is a national park in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The park occupies the western side of the North West Cape peninsula over an area of . The nearest town is Exmouth. Directly off the coast i ...

Francois Peron National Park Francois Peron National Park is a national park on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia, 726 km north of Perth, and located within the boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. The nearest towns to the park are Denham, which is f ...

and

Kennedy Range National Park Kennedy Range National Park is a national park in Gascoyne region of Western Australia, approximately north of Perth and about east of Carnarvon. Kennedy Range is found on the edge of the Gascoyne River catchment area and is a weathered pla ...

References