Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Region/ecosystem
Projected impacts
Coastal fringe
habitats
In Northern Australia, estuarine mangrove habitats have extended
inland into low-lying areas, at the expense of freshwater swamps
(Mulrennan and Woodroffe 1998) and ongoing rises in sea level
will exacerbate this trend. In other regions, landward extension
of mangrove, saltmarsh and rocky shore habitats are likely to be
restricted by coastal development and topography. Physical damage
from increased storm surges will also affect beaches, rocky shores,
mangroves and saltmarsh. Changes in upstream river flows will
alter the quality and quantity of detritus flowing into estuaries and
near-shore communities, disrupting detritus-based food webs.
Mediterranean
woodlands,
shrublands &
heathlands
Myers et al. (2000) identified the Mediterranean shrublands and
woodlands of south west WA as one of 25 global biodiversity
“hotspots”. Many species are threatened, narrow-ranged endemics
(e.g. 20% of woody plants, (Hopper and Gioia 2004) and exist
close to thresholds of temperature and rainfall (Abbott and Le
Maitre 2010). Sharp declines in winter rainfall since the 1970s
have resulted in deterioration of water quantity and quality with
impacts exacerbated by extensive clearing for agriculture and
dryland salinity (Yates
et al.
2010a, Yates
et al.
2010b). Future
interactions of climate change with the root fungus
Phytophthora
spp., which affects many southwest plant communities, remain
unknown (Pritchard 2011).
Tropical
savannas
The fire prone savanna-woodlands of Northern Australia are
experiencing severe impacts from invasive weeds and feral animals.
Widespread declines of the small mammal fauna (Woinarski
et al.
2
011) are evident. This ecosystem will be increasingly vulnerable
from any ongoing intensification of fire cycles (Laurance
et al. 2
011).
Offshore islands
Australia's offshore islands, numbering over 8000, and ranging
in size from less than 1 ha to over 500,000 ha are home to many
restricted endemics, and already highly vulnerable from exotic
species and are particularly vulnerable to loss of habitat from future
sea level rise (Laurance
et al.
2011).
Note
a Sources such as Hughes 2003, Hennessy et al., 2007, Steffen et al., 2009 Hughes
2011, Laurance et al., 2011 and Murphy et al., 2012 provide additional detail.
