Salinisation and prospects for biodiversity in rivers and wetlands of south-west Western Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 673 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Halse ◽  
J. K. Ruprecht ◽  
A. M. Pinder
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Aquatic Ecosystems ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Invertebrate Species ◽  
South West ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Water Volumes ◽  
Western Australian

Saline water was common in south-west Western Australian aquatic systems prior to land-clearing because most streams and wetlands were ephemeral and evapo-concentrated as they dried, and there were high concentrations of stored salt in groundwater and soil profiles. Nevertheless, a 1998 review of salinity trends in rivers of south-west Western Australia showed that 20-fold increases in salinity concentrations had occurred since clearing in the medium-rainfall zone (300–700 mm). More recent data confirm these trends and show that elevated salinities have already caused substantial changes to the biological communities of aquatic ecosystems. Further substantial changes will occur, despite the flora and fauna of the south-west being comparatively well adapted to the presence of salinity in the landscape. Up to one-third of wetland and river invertebrate species, large numbers of plants and a substantial proportion of the waterbird fauna will disappear from the wheatbelt, a region that has high biodiversity value and endemism. Increased salinities are not the only threat associated with salinisation: increased water volumes, longer periods of inundation and more widespread acidity are also likely to be detrimental to the biota.

The species of Alexgeorgea, a Western Australian genus of the restionaceae

1990 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 751 ◽  
Author(s):  
BG Briggs ◽  
LAS Johnson ◽  
SL Krauss
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Rare Species ◽  
The South ◽  
South West ◽  
River Region ◽  
Western Australian

The three species of Alexgeorgea Carlquist are revised, including A. ganopoda L. Johnson & B. Briggs, a newly described rare species of the Mt Frankland–Bow River region of the south-west of Western Australia.

Studies in Australian Amphibia. 1. The genus Crinia Tschudi in South-western Australia and some species from south-eastern Australia.

1957 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
AR Main
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Life History Data ◽  
South West ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Western Australian ◽  
A New Species

The Western Australian representatives of the genus Crinia Tschudi are reviewed. On the basis of field observations and data from in vitro crosses it is concluded that the following species occur in south-western Australia: Crinia rosea Harrison, C. leai Fletcher, C. georgiana Tschudi, C. glauerti Loveridge, C. insignifera Moore, and a new species. From in vitro crosses, Moore's (1954) conclusion that C. signifera Girard does not occur in the south-west of Australia is confirmed. C. glauerti is regarded as a western representative of the C. signifera super-species. Collections in eastern Australia revealed the presence of an undescribed species which is a representative of the C. insignifera super-species. Life history data are presented.

Clarification of the type-locality of Nascio chydaea Olliff (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Nascionini), with further notes on its biology, distribution and relationships

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
MAGNUS PETERSON
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Type Locality ◽  
Distribution Map ◽  
Species Relationships ◽  
Australian Species ◽  
South West ◽  
Colour Photograph ◽  
Western Australian ◽  
Eucalyptus Wandoo

The precise type-locality of the infrequently encountered Western Australian species Nascio chydaea Olliff, 1886 is redefined from 28˚44ʹS, 116˚24ʹE to 34˚11ʹS, 118˚19ʹE, and thus George Masters is identified as the original collector and January–February 1869 as the date of collection of its lectotype and paralectotype. The first larval and adult hostplant records, Eucalyptus wandoo and an unidentified Asteraceae species respectively, as well as three further distributional records from south-west Western Australia, are provided for N. chydaea and discussed. A colour photograph of its dorsal habitus is also provided, as well as a distribution map for this species. Relationships, general zoogeography and biology of all Nascio species are briefly discussed.

Sodic soils in Western Australia

Soil Research ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 359 ◽  
Author(s):  
HR Cochrane ◽  
G Scholz ◽  
AME Vanvreswyk
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Sandy Loam ◽  
The State ◽  
Land Values ◽  
Discrete Problem ◽  
Exchangeable Sodium ◽  
The South ◽  
Sodic Soils ◽  
South West ◽  
Western Australian

Sodic soils are common throughout Western Australia, particularly in the south-west agricultural area where they occur mainly as duplex or gradational profiles. Soils with sodic properties are dominant in 26% of the state; saline-sodic sediments and soils in intermittent streams, lakes and estuarine plains occupy a further 5%. Sodic soils are moderately common throughout the south and western portion of the rangeland areas (38% of the state). The south-west coastal sands and the desert and rangeland soils to the north and east of the state are rarely sodic. Although sodicity has been recognized as a discrete problem in W.A. soils since the 1920s, the extent and severity of sodicity has been satisfactorily described only for small areas of the state and most land managers are unaware of the role sodicity plays in limiting the productivity of their soils. Sodicity is implicated in a diversity of problems for both agricultural and non-agricultural uses of Western Australian soils. Subsoil impermeability is probably the most widespread of these, but no comprehensive, quantitative assessment of the influence of exchangeable sodium on subsoil properties has been undertaken. Topsoil sodicity is much less extensive but can severely restrict land productivity, particularly on sandy loam and finer textured soils which set hard when dry. The physical behaviour of Western Australian topsoils cannot usefully be predicted from measurements of exchangeable sodium alone because soils differ so greatly in their response to changing exchangeable sodium. Some remain structurally stable at ESP values >15 while others are so 'sodium-sensitive' that they exhibit highly dispersive behaviour at ESP values as low as 2%. Land values over much of the dryland farming and pastoral areas of W.A. do not justify sustained use of amendments which would reduce soil exchangeable sodium contents. Efficient management of sodic soils in these areas must rely on the prevention of degradation and the use of biological and physical means to maintain adequate soil physical properties. Effective restoration of degraded sodic soils, however, often does require application of inorganic amendments in combination with tillage to initiate structural recovery. Sodicity is currently not considered to be a problem at any of the three main irrigation areas in W.A., but all have sodic soil within their potentially irrigable lands, which may limit their future expansion.

Abbreviata (Nematoda: Physalopteroidea) From Western Australian Snakes.

1978 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 789 ◽  
Author(s):  
HI Jones
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
The State ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
West Part ◽  
Food Residues ◽  
Paratenic Hosts ◽  
Western Australian

Four new species of Abbreviata (Physalopteridae) are reported from Western Australian snakes, viz. Abbreviata barrowi, sp. nov., Abbreviata occidentalis, sp. nov., Abbreviata kumarinae, sp. nov., and Abbreviata aechmespiculum, sp, nov. Larval Abbreviata not identifiable to species were found in almost half the snakes examined. These were almost absent from the south-west part of Western Australia and were most prevalent in the north of the state. Infections could not be related to season, or to food residues in the hosts. It is suggested that these larvae were unable to mature in the snakes, which were acting as paratenic hosts, and that the most likely definitive hosts were Varanus lizards. A key to the Abbreviata species from Australian and Papua New Guinea reptiles is provided.

scholarly journals Further evidence of the coextinction threat for jumping plant-lice: three new Acizzia (Psyllidae) and Trioza (Triozidae) from Western Australia

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary S. Taylor ◽  
Melinda L. Moir
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
State Government ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Conservation Action ◽  
South West ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Risk Of Extinction ◽  
Three New Species ◽  
Western Australian

Three new species of jumping plant-lice (Psylloidea) are described from Western Australia. Acizzia hughesae sp.n. occurs on Acacia veronica Maslin (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae), A. mccarthyi sp.n. on an undescribed species of Grevillea (Proteaceae) identified by the Western Australian State Government as in need of conservation action (Grevillea sp. ‘Stirling Range’) and Trioza barrettae sp.n. from the critically endangered Banksia brownii (Proteaceae). These new species of jumping plant-lice are considered rare, and at risk of extinction, or coextinction, as they are recorded from plant species with highly restricted distributions in the south-west of Western Australia. Indeed, the Western Australian State Government recently classified two of the three new jumping plant-lice species as threatened.

Review of Aboriginal astronomy and navigation: A Western Australian focus

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Forster
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
The South ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
South West ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
Western Australian

Abstract This review of Aboriginal astronomy and navigation brings together accounts from widely dispersed places in Western Australia, from Noongar Country in the south-west, through to the Eastern Goldfields, the Pilbara, the Kimberley and the Central Deserts. Information for this review has been taken from the literature and non-conventional sources, including artist statements of paintings. The intention for the review is that the scope is traditional, pre-European settlement understandings, but post-settlement records of oral accounts, and later articulation by Aboriginal peoples, are necessarily relied upon. In large part, the Western Australian accounts reflect understandings reported for other states. For example, star maps were used for teaching routes on the ground, but available accounts do not evidence that star maps were used in real-time navigation. The narratives or dreamings that differ most from those of other states explain creation of night-sky objects and landforms on Earth, events including thunder, or they address social behaviour.

Revision of the Australian scorpion-fly genus Harpobittacus (Mecoptera : Bittacidae)

1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 767 ◽  
Author(s):  
KJ Lambkin
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Cladistic Analysis ◽  
Sister Species ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
South West ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Geographic Distributions ◽  
Eucalypt Woodland ◽  
Western Australian

Harpobittacus Gerstaecker is the largest of the six genera of Australian Bittacidae. Adults occur in eastern, south-eastern and south-western Australian eucalypt woodland and coastal heathland during spring and summer and sometimes autumn. The genus contains 11 species, which are diagnosed in the present revision: H. australis (Klug) [= australis rubripes Riek, syn. nov., = corethrarius (Rambur), = intermedius (Selys-Longchamps)] (south-east Australia, including Tasmania); H. albatus Riek, stat. nov. (= limnaeus Smithers, syn. nov.) (coastal eastern Australia); H. christine, sp. nov. (inland south-east Queensland); H. tillyardi Esben-Petersen ( = nigratus Navás) (coastal eastern Australia); H. rubricatus Riek (inland south-east Australia); H. scheibeli Esben-Petersen (= brewerae Smithers, syn. nov.) (inland and coastal eastern Australia); H. septentrionis, sp. nov. (coastal north Queensland); H. nigriceps (Selys-Longchamps) (mainland south-east Australia); H. similis Esben-Petersen, H. quasisimilis, sp. nov., and H. phaeoscius Riek (all south-west Western Australia). Cladistic analysis has produced the following hypothesis of relationships: (((australis (albatus christine)) (tillyardi rubricatus)) ((similis quasisimilis) ((scheibeli septentrionis) (nigriceps phaeoscius))). Immediate sister-species show little or no overlap in their geographic distributions.

A new siderolite from Bencubbin, Western Australia.

1932 ◽  
Vol 23 (136) ◽  
pp. 33-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward S. Simpson ◽  
D. G. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
The South ◽  
Main Mass ◽  
Australian Museum ◽  
South West ◽  
Government Laboratory ◽  
The Government ◽  
Western Australian

In July 1930 a fragment of this meteorite was received at the Government Laboratory, Perth, with a request from the sender that he should be informed of its nature and value. Realizing its scientific interest, one of the authors (E. S. S.) took advantage of a visit to Beneubbin (lat. 30° 48′ S., long. 117° 51′ E. ; about 150 miles NE. of Perth in the South-West Division) to interview the finder and suggest that the whole mass should be handed over to the Government Laboratory for examination, a specimen detached for the British Museum, and the main mass finally presented to the Western Australian Museum in Perth. This arrangement was agreed to.

Management of tar spot disease caused by Phyllachora grevilleae subsp. grevilleae on Hakea myrtoides (Proteaceae)

2010 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 392
Author(s):  
E. M. Davison ◽  
F. C. S. Tay
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
The South ◽  
Late Autumn ◽  
Spot Disease ◽  
South West ◽  
Restricted Distribution ◽  
Controlled Burn ◽  
Tar Spot ◽  
Western Australian

Hakea myrtoides Meisn. is an attractive shrub that has a restricted distribution in the south-west of Western Australia. It is not killed by fire but re-sprouts from basal lignotubers. Its leaves are often severely affected by tar spot disease, caused by the biotrophic, stromatic ascomycete Phyllachora grevilleae (Lév.) Sacc. subsp. grevilleae (Lév) Sacc. This disease is spread by ascospores that are produced during the wettest months of the year: late autumn, winter and spring. Badly infected populations of H. myrtoides were burnt, either in a controlled burn in November 2007, or in a wildfire in January 2008. The incidence of tar spot disease on leaves of burnt plants in 2008 and 2009 was 4.4%, while its incidence on unburnt plants was significantly higher (25.1%). The incidence of flowering in 2009 was similar in both burnt and unburnt populations. Tar spot disease is common on H. myrtoides; it is present on 77% of collections of this host in the Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document