User:Hesperian/Notes/Biogeography

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Biogeographic regions of Western Australia

Contents 1 Stack 2 Process 3 Issues 4 IBRA 6.1 regions and subregions in Western Australia 5 Flora by region 6 History

[edit] Stack

• West Mallee
• East Mallee
• Rewrite Mallee (biogeographic region) from new subregion sources
• Fitzgerald (biogeographic subregion)
• Recherche
• Rewrite Esperance Plains from new subregion sources
• Rewrite Warren (biogeographic region) from subregion source and Christiansen.
• Jarrah Forest
• Swan Coastal Plain
• Geraldton Sandplains
• Yalgoo

• South West Botanical Province - probably edit South west Australia, then move to new location

[edit] Process

1. Break IBRA out into a separate article
2. Write Beard's biogeographic regionalisation of Western Australia
3. Write an article on each IBRA region, IBRA subregion and WWF ecoregion in WA
4. Write articles on Beard's provinces, explaining their original and current meaning
5. Write articles on Hopper's zones
6. Write biogeographic regions of Western Australia to tie it all together

[edit] Issues

• Have a look at floristic province.

[edit] IBRA 6.1 regions and subregions in Western Australia

• Avon Wheatbelt = Beard's "Wheatbelt Region"
  • Avon Wheatbelt P1
  • Avon Wheatbelt P2
• Carnarvon (biogeographic region) = Beard's "Carnarvon"
  • Cape Range
  • Wooramel
• Central Kimberley = Beard's "Central Kimberley"
  • Pentecost
  • Hart
  • Mount Eliza
• Central Ranges = Beard's "Central Ranges"
  • Mann-Musgrave Block (also in NT and SA)
  • (plus two more subregions in SA)
• Coolgardie (biogeographic region) = Beard's "South-Western Interzone"
  • Mardabilla
  • Southern Cross
  • Eastern Goldfield
• Dampierland = Beard's "Dampierland"
  • Fitzroy Trough
  • Pindanland
• Esperance Plains = Beard's "Esperance Plains"
  • Fitzgerald
  • Recherche
• Gascoyne (biogeographic region) = Beard's "Gascoyne"
  • Ashburton
  • Carnegie
  • Augustus
• Geraldton Sandplains = Beard's "Northern Sandplains"
  • Geraldton Hills
  • Leseur Sandplain
• Gibson Desert (biogeographic region) or merge into Gibson Desert? = Beard's "Gibson Desert"
  • Lateritic Plain
  • Dune Field
• Great Sandy Desert (biogeographic region) or merge into Great Sandy Desert? = Beard's "Great Sandy Desert" + southern half of Beard's "Tanami"
  • McLarty
  • Mackay (also in NT)
  • (plus four more subregions in NT)
• Great Victoria Desert (biogeographic region) or merge into Great Victoria Desert? = Beard's "Great Victoria Desert"
  • Shield
  • Central
  • Eastern, Maralinga (also in SA)
  • Kintore (also in SA)
  • (plus two more subregions in SA)
• Hampton (biogeographic region) = coastal verge of Beard's "Nullarbor"
  • Hampton (also in SA)
• Jarrah Forest = Beard's "Dale" and "Menzies" subregions of "South-west Forest Region"
  • Northern Jarrah Forest
  • Southern Jarrah Forest
• Little Sandy Desert (biogeographic region) or merge into Little Sandy Desert? = Beard's "Little Sandy Desert"
  • Rudall
  • Trainor
• Mallee (biogeographic region) = Beard's "Mallee Region"
  • Eastern Mallee
  • Western Mallee
• Murchison (biogeographic region) or merge into Murchison (Western Australia)? = Beard's "Murchison"
  • Eastern Murchison
  • Western Murchison
• Northern Kimberley = western 2/3 of Beard's "Northern Kimberley"
  • Mitchell
  • Berkeley
• Nullarbor (biogeographic region) or merge into Nullarbor Plain? Evidence that the plain and the biogeographic region are significantly different. = Beard's "Nullarbor" with coastal verge excluded
  • Northern band, Carlisle (also in SA)
  • Central band, Nullabor Plain (also in SA)
  • (plus one more subregion in SA)
• Ord Victoria Plain = Beard's "East Kimberley"
  • Ord, Ord-Victoria Plains P1 (also in NT)
  • South Kimberley Interzone (also in NT)
  • (plus two more subregions in NT)
• Pilbara (biogeographic region) = Beard's "Pilbara"
  • Chichester
  • Fortescue
  • Hamersley
  • Roebourne
• Swan Coastal Plain (biogeographic region) or merge into Swan Coastal Plain? A: Merge. = Beard's "Drummond" subregion of "South-west Forest Region"
  • Dandarragan Plateau
  • Perth
• Tanami (biogeographic region), claim Tanami from redirect, or merge with Tanami Desert? = northern half of Beard's "Tanami"
  • Tanami P1 (also in NT)
  • (plus two more subregions in NT)
• Victoria Bonaparte = eastern 1/3 of Beard's "North Kimberley"
  • Victoria Bonaparte P1 (also in NT)
  • (plus two more subregions in NT)
• Warren (biogeographic region) = Beard's "Warren"
  • Warren
• Yalgoo (biogeographic region) = new region not referrable to Beard. Takes the southern bit of Beard's "Carnarvon" and a slice from the south-west side of Beard's "Murchison"
  • Edel
  • Tallering
• (plus 59 more regions in other states)

[edit] Flora by region

This is a list of flora (of WA only for now) by IBRA region. I will use this list to help me decide what region article to write next, and to decide when it is appropriate to roll out flora by region categories.

Region	Category	Total taxa (WA only)	Articles	Stats
Avon Wheatbelt	Category:Flora of the Avon Wheatbelt region	4973	Banksia ashbyi, Banksia attenuata, Banksia baueri, Banksia coccinea, Banksia grossa, Banksia incana, Banksia leptophylla, Banksia meisneri, Banksia nutans, Banksia prionotes, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia violacea,
Carnarvon (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Carnarvon region	1557	Banksia archaeocarpa (EXTINCT), Banksia ashbyi, Banksia prionotes, Portulaca oleracea,
Central Kimberley	Category:Flora of the Central Kimberley region	1405	Portulaca oleracea,
Central Ranges	Category:Flora of the Central Ranges	727
Coolgardie (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Coolgardie region	2728	Banksia audax, Banksia hookeriana, Banksia nutans, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Portulaca oleracea,
Dampierland	Category:Flora of the Dampierland regions	1515	Portulaca oleracea,
Esperance Plains	Category:Flora of the Esperance Plains	3800	Banksia attenuata, Banksia baueri, Banksia coccinea, Banksia meisneri, Banksia nutans, Banksia pulchella, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia violacea, Portulaca oleracea,
Gascoyne (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Gascoyne region	1398	Portulaca oleracea,
Geraldton Sandplains	Category:Flora of the Geraldton Sandplains	3661	Banksia ashbyi, Banksia attenuata, Banksia burdettii, Banksia grossa, Banksia hookeriana, Banksia incana, Banksia lanata, Banksia laricina, Banksia leptophylla, Banksia micrantha, Banksia prionotes, Banksia scabrella, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia telmatiaea, Banksia victoriae, Portulaca oleracea,
Gibson Desert (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Gibson Desert	669	Portulaca oleracea,
Great Sandy Desert (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Great Sandy Desert	855
Great Victoria Desert (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Great Victoria Desert	911
Hampton (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Hampton region	335
Jarrah Forest	Category:Flora of the Jarrah Forest region	4534	Banksia attenuata, Banksia coccinea, Banksia laricina, Banksia leptophylla, Banksia meisneri, Banksia nutans, Banksia prionotes, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia telmatiaea, Portulaca oleracea,
Little Sandy Desert (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Little Sandy Desert	960
Mallee (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Mallee region	3682	Banksia attenuata, Banksia audax, Banksia baueri, Banksia meisneri, Banksia nutans, Banksia prionotes, Banksia pulchella, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia violacea, Portulaca oleracea,
Murchison (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Murchison region	2222	Portulaca oleracea,
Northern Kimberley	Category:Flora of the Northern Kimberley region	1957	Cordia subcordata,
Nullarbor (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Nullarbor region	497
Ord Victoria Plain	Category:Flora of the Ord Victoria Plain	1109	Portulaca oleracea,
Pilbara (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Pilbara region	1742	Cordia subcordata, Portulaca oleracea,
Swan Coastal Plain (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Swan Coastal Plain	3741	Banksia attenuata, Banksia burdettii, Banksia laricina, Banksia leptophylla, Banksia meisneri, Banksia micrantha, Banksia prionotes, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia telmatiaea, Portulaca oleracea,
Tanami (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Tanami region	377	Portulaca oleracea,
Victoria Bonaparte	Category:Flora of the Victoria Bonaparte region	1374	Portulaca oleracea,
Warren (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Warren region	2284	Banksia attenuata, Banksia coccinea, Banksia meisneri, Banksia sphaerocarpa,
Yalgoo (biogeographic region)	Category:Flora of the Yalgoo region	1379	Banksia ashbyi, Portulaca oleracea,

Listed: Banksia archaeocarpa (EXTINCT), Banksia ashbyi, Banksia attenuata, Banksia audax, Banksia baueri, Banksia burdettii, Banksia coccinea, Banksia grossa, Banksia hookeriana, Banksia incana, Banksia lanata, Banksia leptophylla, Banksia meisneri, Banksia micrantha, Banksia nutans, Banksia prionotes, Banksia pulchella, Banksia scabrella, Banksia sphaerocarpa, Banksia telmatiaea, Banksia victoriae, Banksia violacea, Cordia subcordata, Portulaca oleracea,

Up to Banksia benthamiana

[edit] History

• • Mueller identifies south west
  • Diels breaks WA into
    • South West Province
      • Irwin District, Avon District, Darling District, Warren District, Avon District, Stirling District, Eyre District
    • Eremaean Province
      • Coolgardie District, Austin District
  • Gardner accepts Diels' and adds
    • Northern Province
      • Kimberley District, Pilbara District
  • Gardner later redivides Diels' Eremaean Province into
    • • Ashburton District, Austin District, Coolgardie District, Eucla District, Carnegie District
  • and divides the Norther Province into
    • • Fortescue District, Dampier District, Fitzroy District, Ord District, Hann District
  • E. de C. Clarke publishes a regionalisation based on geology and climate, believing (correctly) that the result will partition plant communities too
    • Fifteen regions: Jarrah, Stirling, Nullarbor, Wheat Belt, Perth, Greenough, Kalgoorlie, Murchison, Carnarvon, North-West, Carnegia, Warburton, Canning, Fitzroy, Antrim and North Kimberley
  • Speck proposes insertion of Le Sueur District between Irwin and Darling
  • Burbidge divides all of Australia into three "Principal Floristic Zones" - Tropical, Temperate and Eremaean - and three "Interzone Areas".
  • Main, Lee and Littlejohn publish a zoogeographical regionalisation that identified three regions - Torresian, Eyrean and Bassian - that are pretty much the same as Burbidge's zones, except that the extention of Bassian to the South West was controversial.
  • G. E. Nicholls suggests that the south west should be recognised as a biogeographic regions, and proposes the name "Hesperonotian"!
  • Pianka publishes a map of subregions of the Australian desert.
    • Doing proposes a phytogeographic regionalisation in which the Austrlaian Plant Kingdom is divided into the Central Australian Subkingdom and the Eucalyptus Subkingdom. Each subkingdom is divided in regions and these into provinces.
  • The Vegetation Survey of Western Australia starts. The resulting maps show phytogeographical regions clear as day. Beard realises that one can define regions based on plant communities, rather than starting at geography and climate.
    • Three provinces, one interzone, 21 regions, 4 subregions.
  • IBRA: "The baseline data set for WA was Beard (1980) modified in consultation with N L McKenzie, G J Keighery, K F Kenneally and G Wardell Johnston (WA CALM) and R E Johnstone and L A Smith (WAM), after discussions with J S Beard. Cross-border adjustments were then made in consultation with M Fleming and D Howe (CCNT) and P Copley (SA DENR). Attributes considered were climate, geology, vegetation formations and floristics, and vertebrates. The current regions represent an interpretation of all previous regionalisations tempered by field based knowledge."
  • From "The Western Australian Flora A Descriptive Catalogue":

"There are six areas where regional boundaries have changed significantly between the Beard and IBRA classifications.

• Victoria Bonaparte (IBRA) incorporates the eastern quarter of Gardner (Beard)
• Tanami (IBRA) is now equivalent to the northern half of Mueller (Beard) and Canning (Beard) as Great Sandy Desert (IBRA) now continues into the Northern Territory
• Yalgoo (IBRA) separates off the south-west corner of Austin (Beard)
• Jarrah Forest (IBRA) now equivalent to the combined Dale and Menzies sub-districts of Darling (Beard)
• Coolgardie (Beard, IBRA) no longer reaches the coast west of the town of Eyre as Mallee (IBRA) extends further east
• Eucla (Beard) no longer reaches the coast east of the town of Eyre due to the introduction of Hampton (IBRA)."

• • IBRA - needs to be split into separate article from the WWF ecoregions
  • Where do WWF ecoregions come in?
  • Most herbaria and such use IBRA now, but IBRA only has regions and subregions. It doesn't have aggregate names, so some herbaria have defined aggregates that roughly approximate Beard's provinces.
    • What I'm trying to say is, Beard's "South West Province" isn't listed in IBRA, but it is still in use. It is now defined as the aggregate of the IBRA regions "Geraldton Sandplains", "Swan Coastal Plain", "Jarrah Forest", "Warren", "Avon Wheatbelt", "Mallee", "Esperance Plains".