Neal Enright

Australia is the most fire-prone of all continents. Climate change will affect fire regimes in Australia through the effects of changes to temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind - the fire weather components - and through the effects of increases in atmospheric CO2, and changes in moisture, on vegetation, and therefore fuels. The outcomes of these processes on fuels, and hence fire regimes, are highly uncertain, and require further research.

Australian sclerophyll shrubby ecosystems (SSEs) are rich in plant and animal taxa, the coexistence of which is mediated by disturbance dynamics in which fire regimes, nutritional poverty and climate play pivotal roles. Fire plays a crucial role in these interactions and will shape the fate of SSEs as climate changes in response to greenhouse gas emissions. Although future climate change scenarios vary regionally across Australian SSE regions (Pitman and Perkins 2008), most of temperate southern Australia is expected to become warmer and drier, with an increased frequency of extreme weather events (Lucas et al. 2007), so that the ecological dynamics of temperate shrublands are likely to be increasingly driven by the interactions between drought, plant growth and fire. SSEs elsewhere in Australia may experience different climate change impacts, with varying fire responses. Here we provide a synopsis of the distribution, fuel characteristics and prevailing fire regimes of Australian SSEs. We review recent advances in understanding the key characteristics and dependencies that govern the responses of shrubby ecosystem plants and animals to fire regimes, and identify key fire-related ecological processes likely to interact with a changing climate and to mediate the persistence of plants and animals within them.

Araucaria muelleri is a slow-growing forest tree species that is restricted to ultramafic substrate types in the southern third of the main island of New Caledonia. Its present distribution is patchy and reflects major recent human impacts on the forests within its geographic range. About 5000 mature individuals of A. muelleri are known from 5 major localities within an area 40 km from east to west and 25 km from north to south. large remnant stands remain at high altitude (1000 m) in reserved lands at Mt des Sourcesj otherwise, the species is restricted to very small stands, mostly on lateritic boulder fields (cuirasse) of the Goro Plateau at about 300m altitude.

The 'sense of place' that a city and its inhabitants come to identify themselves by can have profound impacts on the way that urban landscapes develop. In the case of Perth, its icons are the Swan River, The sandy beaches of the Indian Ocean coastline, and Kings Park. While the first two have defined the way that the city is laid out and has grown, the latter has fostered the development of an Australian garden and landscape approach to urban design, and a strong native species conservation ethic.