The pre-European Australian landscape had a complex mosaic of
vegetation that supported a rich biodiversity.1 Following European
settlement in 1788, there was initially an expansion of pastoral
based activity followed by extensive clearing of land for cropping
and pasture and further intensification of agriculture and urbanisation
(Burvill, 1979; Australian Greenhouse Office, 2001).
This transformation of the Australian landscape from deeprooted
woody vegetation to shallow-rooted annual crops and
pastures has come at a huge environmental cost. Two major consequences
of this land-cover change are dry land salinity (Peck and
Hatton, 2003) and loss of biodiversity (Myers et al., 2000), both
directly attributed to land clearing and the subsequent hydrological
changes. Such changes have had a particularly profound impact
in areas such as the south-west of Western Australia where approximately
20 million hectares have been cleared for farming; a region
The pre-European Australian landscape had a complex mosaic ofvegetation that supported a rich biodiversity.1 Following Europeansettlement in 1788, there was initially an expansion of pastoralbased activity followed by extensive clearing of land for croppingand pasture and further intensification of agriculture and urbanisation(Burvill, 1979; Australian Greenhouse Office, 2001).This transformation of the Australian landscape from deeprootedwoody vegetation to shallow-rooted annual crops andpastures has come at a huge environmental cost. Two major consequencesof this land-cover change are dry land salinity (Peck andHatton, 2003) and loss of biodiversity (Myers et al., 2000), bothdirectly attributed to land clearing and the subsequent hydrologicalchanges. Such changes have had a particularly profound impactin areas such as the south-west of Western Australia where approximately20 million hectares have been cleared for farming; a region
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