Yalgoo is an interim Australian bioregion located in

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 ...

. It has an area of . The bioregion, together with the

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 ...

and

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. ...

bioregions, is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion as classified by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

Geography

The Yalgoo bioregion extends southeastwards from the southern end of Shark Bay on Australia's west coast nearly to Lake Barlee in the interior of Western Australia. The western portion, known as the Edel subregion, includes the Edel Land peninsula and

Dirk Hartog Dirk Hartog (; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his ...

Bernier Bernier is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Chantal Bernier, Canadian lawyer * Charles A. Bernier (1890–1963), American college sports coach * David Bernier or Kike Bernier, Puerto Rican fencer * Étienne-Alexandre B ...

, and Dorre islands, which enclose Shark Bay on the west. It also includes the coastal plain south of Shark Bay nearly to Kalbarri, where it transitions to the

bioregion. The Edel subregion rests on the Carnarvon and

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

sedimentary basins. The

Zuytdorp Cliffs The Zuytdorp Cliffs extend for about along a rugged, spectacular and little visited segment of the Western Australian Indian Ocean coast. The cliffs extend from just south of the mouth of the Murchison River at Kalbarri, to Pepper Point sou ...

line the coast from the northern end of Edel Land to the mouth of the Murchison River. Soils are generally white sands along the coast, and pale red quaternary sands further inland.Desmond, Anthony, and Alanna Chant (2001). "Geraldton Sandplains 1 (GS1 - Edel subregion)" in ''A Biodiversity Audit of Western Australia’s 53 Biogeographical Subregions in 2002''. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Government of Western Australia, November 2001

/ref> The Tallering subregion includes the Toolonga Plateau, part of the Carnarvon basin, and extends southeastward across the

Yilgarn Craton The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton that constitutes the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic fold and thrust belts. Zircon grains in the Jack Hills, Narryer Terrane have b ...

, an uplifted block of ancient crystalline rock.Desmond, Anthony, and Alanna Chant (2001). "Geraldton Sandplains 1 (GS1 - Edel subregion)" in ''A Biodiversity Audit of Western Australia’s 53 Biogeographical Subregions in 2002''. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Government of Western Australia, November 2001

/ref>

Subregions

In the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) system it has the code of YAL, and it has two sub-regions. Earlier versions of the IBRA included the Edel subregion in the

bioregion. 2004's version 6.1 of the IBRA added the Edel subregion to the Yalgoo bioregion, and re-designated the original Yalgoo bioregion as the Tallering subregion.

Climate

The bioregion has a semi-arid

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 ...

, with hot, dry summers and mild winters. Most rainfall is in the winter months. Yalgoo bioregion is in the transitional region, or interzone, between the Mediterranean climate Southwest Australia and the deserts of central Australia.

Flora and fauna

Common plant communities in the Edel subregion include tree-heaths dominated by members of the Proteaceae plant family, and '' Acacia–

Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fa ...

'' thickets. The vegetation of the Tallering subregion is characterised by woodlands, dominated by species of ''

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 ...

, Acacia'', and '' Callitris''. Plant communities include '' Callitris–

Eucalyptus salubris ''Eucalyptus salubris'', commonly known as gimlet, fluted gum tree, gimlet gum and silver-topped gimlet, is a species of mallet that is endemic to low-rainfall areas of the wheatbelt and goldfields regions of Western Australia. Description '' ...

'' woodlands, mulga ('' Acacia aneura'') woodlands, and bowgada (''Acacia ramulosa'') open woodlands and scrub. The Tallering subregion is particularly rich in herbaceous

ephemeral plant An ephemeral plant is one marked by short life cycles. The word ephemeral means transitory or quickly fading. In regard to plants, it refers to several distinct growth strategies. The first, spring ephemeral, refers to perennial plants that emerge ...

s. Native mammals include the boodie (''Bettongia lesueur''),

rufous hare-wallaby The rufous hare-wallaby (''Lagorchestes hirsutus''), also known as the mala, is a small macropod found in Australia. It was formerly widely distributed across the western half of the continent, but naturally occurring populations are now confine ...

(''Lagorchestes hirsutus''), banded hare-wallaby (''Lagostrophus fasciatus''),

western barred bandicoot The Western barred bandicoot (''Perameles bougainville''), also known as the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuar ...

(''Perameles bougainville''), and

Shark Bay mouse Gould's mouse (''Pseudomys gouldii''), also known as the Shark Bay mouse and djoongari in the Pintupi and Luritja languages, is a species of rodent in the murid family. Once ranging throughout Australia from Western Australia to New South Wale ...

(''Pseudomys fieldi''). These mammals' current range is mostly limited to the Edel subregion, although some formerly had a wider range. Native birds include the

malleefowl The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...

(''Leipoa ocellata'') and

western grasswren The western grasswren (''Amytornis textilis''), also referred to as the thick-billed grasswren (western subspecies) and, formerly, as the textile wren, is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. It was formerly lum ...

(''Amytornis textilis''). A subspecies of

purple-backed fairywren The purple-backed fairywren (''Malurus assimilis'') is a fairywren that is native to Australia. Described by Alfred John North in 1901, it has four recognised subspecies. In a species that exhibits sexual dimorphism, the brightly coloured breedin ...

, ''Malurus assimilis bernieri'', is found only on Bernier and Dorre islands, and the black and white fairy wren (''Malurus leucopterus leucopterus''), a subspecies of

white-winged fairywren The white-winged fairywren (''Malurus leucopterus'') is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It lives in the drier parts of Central Australia; from central Queensland and South Australia across to Western Aus ...

, is found only on Dirk Hartog Island. The

sandhill frog The northern sandhill frog (''Arenophryne rotunda'') is a small, fossorial frog native to a small region of the Western Australian coast. It was formerly considered the sole species within the genus ''Arenophryne'' until the first decade of th ...

(''Arenophryne rotunda'') is a limited-range species found in the Edel subregion and the northern

bioregion.

Land use

The predominant land use is livestock pasturing on natural vegetation.

Protected areas

12.53% of the Yalgoo bioregion is in protected areas.Lucinda Douglass, Carol Booth, Simon Kennedy, and Joel Turner (2019). ''An extraordinary natural legacy: An assessment and recommendations for the proposed expansion of Western Australia’s conservation reserve system''. Commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Centre for Conservation Geography, March 2019. Much of the Edel subregion is within the Shark Bay

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

area. 32.28% of the subregion is protected, and protected areas include Shark Bay Marine Park, Dirk Hartog Island National Park, Zuytdorp Nature Reserve, and Toolonga Nature Reserve. Only 3.56 of the Tallering subregion is in protected areas.