A fresh framework for the ecology of arid Australia

Morton, Stephen; Smith, Mark S.; Dickman, Chris R.; Dunkerley, David; Friedel, Margaret H.; McAllister, Ryan R. J.; Reid, Jessica; Roshier, David A.; Smith, Michael; Walsh, Fiona; Wardle, Glenda M.; Watson, Ian; Westoby, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2010.11.001

Cited by 299 publications

(259 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…It has previously been suggested that birds in Australia's arid regions breed opportunistically throughout the year, and often in response to rainfall, which results in high food availability (Zann et al 1995, Perfito et al 2007, Robin et al 2009, Morton et al 2011. This is analogous to the established paradigm from temperate regions that bird reproductive phenology is primarily determined by peak food availability (Lack 1950, Visser et al 2005.…”

Section: Egg-laying Phenology Varies With Biomementioning

confidence: 94%

“…For instance, in the Australian tropical biome, high rainfall seasonality has a negative relationship with the spatial abundance of birds and this rainfall pattern may create bottlenecks in food availability limiting both breeding density and success (Williams and Middleton 2008). By contrast, in arid regions (desert and grassland biomes), birds are faced with hot summer temperatures (.338C average daily maximum temperatures (Bureau of Meteorology 2009)) and low rainfall, which is typically aseasonal and highly unpredictable in both timing and magnitude (Morton et al 2011). Temperate and subtropical biomes experience seasonal and spatial variations in temperature and precipitation resulting in regions with dry summers or winters or having no dry season at all (Stern et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Breeding seasonality in central Amazonian rainforest birds

Stouffer

Johnson

Bierregaard

2013

The Auk

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Section: Egg-laying Phenology Varies With Biomementioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding seasonality in central Amazonian rainforest birds

Stouffer

Johnson

Bierregaard

2013

The Auk

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“…The major environmental themes of Australian and other deserts are soil infertility and highly variable rainfall. Yet, termites are abundant in Australia's desert ecosystems, due to abundant carbohydrate, fire-proneness, abundance of invertebrate consumers of sap and other C-rich plant products, and striking aquatic systems (Morton et al, 2010). The role of termites and their symbiotic microbes in organic matter decomposition and water conservation is well recognized.…”

Section: Termite Modification Of Soil Water Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimicry of Termite Social Cohesion and Design to Inspire and Create Sustainable Systems

French¹,

Ahmed²

2011

On Biomimetics

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“…In arid and semi-arid systems, microrefugia provide critical contemporary habitat. Deserts are highly variable, with vegetation and wildlife populations exhibiting boom-bust dynamics driven by patchy, unpredictable precipitation (Morton et al, 2011). Water supplies that are decoupled from regional precipitation, such as accessible groundwater or springs, maintain consistent resource availability during bust phases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting microrefugia in semi-arid landscapes from remotely sensed vegetation dynamics

Andrew

Warrener

2017

Remote Sensing of Environment

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(in press). Detecting microrefugia in semi-arid landscapes from remotely sensed vegetation dynamics. Remote Sensing of Environment. Accepted 4 August 2017. DOI:https: //doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.08.005 Disclaimer:The PDF document is a copy of the final version of this manuscript that was subsequently accepted by the journal for publication. The paper has been through peer review, but it has not been subject to any additional copy-editing or journal specific formatting (so will look different from the final version of record, which may be accessed following the DOI above depending on your access situation). 2 AbstractMicrorefugia are sites with stable, high quality habitat within landscapes characterized by dynamic environmental conditions driven by climate variability or ecological disturbances. There is considerable interest in the potential of microrefugia to provide climate change resilience to landscapes and to biodiversity conservation. Although attractive conceptually, there is yet little guidance on how to identify climate change microrefugia in order to study and protect them, and the data required to do so are often lacking. This study demonstrates how time series remote sensing, using all available Landsat images of a study area, can be used to directly detect microrefugia maintained by water subsidies in a semi-arid landscape in southwest Western Australia.Microrefugia were identified as pixels with abundant vegetation and consistent vegetation dynamics between wet and dry years. At every pixel, a harmonic model was fit to the intra-annual time series of vegetation index values compiled from the wettest years in the Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) archive. This model was then used to predict the phenological cycle of the driest years at that pixel. Candidate microrefugia were defined to be those pixels with (1) high vegetation activity in dry years and (2) highly predictable phenologies that are consistent regardless of the weather conditions experienced in a given year. Spatial relationships between candidate microrefugia and landscape features associated with elevated moisture availability (thought to drive climate microrefugia in these semi-arid landscapes) were assessed. The candidate microrefugia show great promise. Evaluations against high-resolution imagery reveal that candidate microrefugia most likely buffer against drought, although refugia from other disturbances, especially fire, were also detected. In contrast, spatial proxies of the physical features expected to maintain microrefugia failed to adequately represent the distribution of microrefugia across the landscape, likely due to data quality and the heterogeneity of microrefugia. Direct detection of microrefugia with Earth observation data is a promising solution in data limited regions. Landsat time series analyses are well suited to this application as they can characterize both the habitat quality and stability aspects of microrefugia.

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A fresh framework for the ecology of arid Australia

Cited by 299 publications

References 109 publications

Breeding seasonality in central Amazonian rainforest birds

Breeding seasonality in central Amazonian rainforest birds

Biomimicry of Termite Social Cohesion and Design to Inspire and Create Sustainable Systems

Detecting microrefugia in semi-arid landscapes from remotely sensed vegetation dynamics

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