The Southwest Australia savanna is an

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 ...

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 ...

Location and description

The southwest Australia savanna is at the transition between the

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

ecoregions of Australia's southwest corner and the

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 h ...

to the north and inland. Much of the area is now converted to wheat-growing. The latitude of this region is 8° to 20° on the equator. The ecoregion is bounded by the drier

Carnarvon xeric shrublands The Carnarvon xeric shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Western Australia. The ecoregion is coterminous with the Carnarvon Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) bioregion.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 northeast. Mediterranean-climate ecoregions lie to the east and south – the Coolgardie woodlands to the east, the

Esperance mallee Esperance mallee is an ecoregion on the south coast of Western Australia, a coastal strip where the predominant vegetation consists of short eucalyptus trees and shrubs. Location and description A part of the Mediterranean forests, woodland ...

to the southeast, and the Southwest Australia woodlands to the southwest. It is bounded on the west 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 t ...

. The ecoregion contains three Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) regions –

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...

Geraldton Sandplains Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

, and Yalgoo.

Flora

The ecoregion is part of the Southwest Australia

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the c ...

. The original

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

consists of

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

dotted with

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

, mallee woodlands and shrublands, and

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

. Although the more fertile southern areas have now mostly been converted to wheat fields, more original savanna remains in the north of the region where there are more acacia trees than eucalyptus. Plants of the region include many wildflowers and trees including the scented '' Acacia rostellifera''. The best-preserved area of original habitat is found in and around the multi-colored sandstone gorges of

Kalbarri National Park Kalbarri National Park is located north of Perth, in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The major geographical features of the park include the Murchison River gorge which runs for nearly on the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Sp ...

on the Murchison River.

Fauna

Birds of the area include the

emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The emu ...

, although this has been hunted as a pest by the wheat-growing community, and the honey-eating

western spinebill The western spinebill (''Acanthorhynchus superciliosus'') is a honeyeater found in the heath and woodland of south-western Australia. Ranging between long, it weighs around . It has a black head, gray back and wings, with a red band behind its ...

. Mammals include the

honey possum The honey possum or noolbenger (''Tarsipes rostratus''), is a tiny species of marsupial that feeds on the nectar and pollen of a diverse range of flowering plants. Found in southwest Australia, it is an important pollinator for such plants as '' ...

(''Tarsipes rostratus'') and the southwestern pygmy possum (''Cercartetus concinnus''), both of which feed on nectar from the wildflowers.

Protected Areas

A 2017 assessment found that 15,778 km², or 9%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas.Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b

/ref> They include

Alexander Morrison National Park Alexander Morrison National Park is a national park in Western Australia, located north of Perth in the Shire of Coorow along the Green Head-Coorow Road. It was named for Alexander Morrison (botanist), Alexander Morrison, the first Government Bo ...

, Badgingarra National Park,

Beekeepers Nature Reserve A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees. Beekeepers are also called honey farmers, apiarists, or less commonly, apiculturists (both from the Latin '' apis'', bee; cf. apiary). The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in ...

, Pinjarrega Nature Reserve, Toolonga Nature Reserve, Wandana Nature Reserve, and Zuytdorp Nature Reserve.

References

{{Western Australia Grasslands of Australia Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub in Australia Southwest Australia Ecoregions of Western Australia Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Location and description

Flora

Fauna

Protected Areas

See also

References