User:Hesperian/Notes/Biogeography

Stack

 * 1) Rewrite Mallee (biogeographic region) from new subregion sources
 * 2) Fitzgerald (biogeographic subregion)
 * 3) Recherche
 * 4) Rewrite Esperance Plains from new subregion sources
 * 5) Rewrite Warren (biogeographic region) from subregion source and Christiansen.
 * 6) Dandaragan Plateau
 * 7) Perth (biogeographic subregion)
 * 8) Swan Coastal Plain

Ecoregions, IBRA 6.1 regions, and IBRA 6.1 subregions in Western Australia
High Rainfall Zone, Transitional Rainfall Zone, Low Rainfall Zone.

Southwest Botanical Province, Eremaean Botanical Province, Northern Botanical Province.

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.

Listed: 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

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".