Rocky outcrops are landscape features with disproportionately high biodiversity values relative to their size. They support specialised plants and animals, and a wide variety of endemic species. To Indigenous Australians, they are sacred places and provide valuable resources. Despite their ecological and cultural importance, many rocky outcrops and associated biota are threatened by agricultural and recreational activities, forestry and mining operations, invasive weeds, altered fire regimes and climate change. Rocky Outcrops in Australia: Ecology, Conservation and Management contains chapters on why this habitat is important, the animals that live and depend on these formations, key threatening processes and how rocky outcrops can be managed to improve biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, state forests and protected areas. This book will be an important reference for landholders, Landcare groups, naturalists interested in Australian wildlife and natural resource managers.

Rocky outcrops are landscape features with disproportionately high biodiversity values relative to their size. They support specialised plants and animals, and a wide variety of endemic species. To Indigenous Australians, they are sacred places and provide valuable resources. Despite their ecological and cultural importance, many rocky outcrops and associated biota are threatened by agricultural and recreational activities, forestry and mining operations, invasive weeds, altered fire regimes and climate change. Rocky Outcrops in Australia: Ecology, Conservation and Management contains chapters on why this habitat is important, the animals that live and depend on these formations, key threatening processes and how rocky outcrops can be managed to improve biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, state forests and protected areas. This book will be an important reference for landholders, Landcare groups, naturalists interested in Australian wildlife and natural resource managers.

Inselbergs are isolated rock outcrops that stand out abruptly from surrounding plains. Despite the widespread occurrence of granite inselbergs throughout all climatic and vegetational zones, their remarkably rich plant life was largely neglected in the recent literature. This richly and partly in color illustrated volume provides a detailed survey of all major abiotic and biotic features characteristic for inselbergs. The extreme environmental conditions on inselbergs are described in depth as well as specific adaptive traits of rock outcrop plants including their morphological, anatomical and physiological responses. The diversity and structure of inselberg plant communities are examined on a global scale with detailed regional accounts for different tropical and temperate zones.

This book provides an authoritative source of information on kangaroos and their relatives. Topics include: species characteristics and biology, adaptations and function, and conservation. The book also discusses culling and the commercial kangaroo harvest, as well as national attitudes to kangaroos and their value for tourism. There are 71 recognised species of kangaroo found in Australasia. Of these, 46 are endemic to Australia, 21 are endemic to the island of New Guinea, and four species are found in both regions. The various species have a number of common names, including bettong, kangaroo, pademelon, potoroo, quokka, rat kangaroo, rock wallaby, tree kangaroo, wallaby and wallaroo. Illustrated in full colour, Australia’s Amazing Kangaroos will give readers insight into the world of this intriguing marsupial – an animal that has pride of place on the Australian Coat of Arms.

Rock surfaces provide a challenging habitat for a broad diversity of micro- or small-sized organisms. They interact with each other forming complex communities as well with their substrate causing biodeterioration of rock. Extreme fluctuation in light, temperature and hydration are the main factors that determine the rock surface habitats. The habitat includes epilithic organisms which thrive on the surface without penetrating the rock, endolithic organisms which live just beneath the surface using a thin layer of the rock surface for protection against adverse conditions of the environment (e.g. light protection, storage of water) and chasmo-endolithic organisms which use fractures of the rock surface for a more habitable environment. The book will provide an overview of the various organismal groups, from prokaryotes to vascular plants and arthropods, as well as survey organism-mediated interactions with the rock surface. The latter include biogenic weathering (biogeochemistry, state-of-the art imaging methods), photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation at and inside the rock surface.

Desiccation tolerance was essential when plants first began to conquer land, roughly 400 million years ago. While most desiccation-tolerant plants belong to basal phylogenetic taxa, this capacity has also evolved among some vascular plant species. In this volume renowned experts treat plant desiccation tolerance at the organismic as well as at the cellular level. The diversity of ecophysiological adaptations and acclimations of cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, mosses, and lichens is addressed in several chapters. The particular problems of vascular plants during dehydration/rehydration cycles resulting not only from their hydraulic architectures, but also from severe secondary stresses associated with the desiccated state are discussed. Based on the treatment of desiccation tolerance at the organismic level, a second section of the book is devoted to the cell biological level. It delineates the general concepts of functional genomics, epigenetics, genetics, molecular biology and the sensing and signalling networks of systems biology involved in dehydration/rehydration cycles. This book provides an invaluable compilation of current knowledge, which is a prerequisite for a better understanding of plant desiccation tolerance in natural as well as agro- and forest ecosystems where water is one of the most essential resources.

An increasing number of Australians want to be assured that the food and fibre being produced on this continent have been grown and harvested in an ecologically sustainable way. Ecologically sustainable farming conserves the array of species that are integral to key ecological processes such as pollination, seed dispersal, natural pest control and the decomposition of waste. Wildlife Conservation in Farm Landscapes communicates new scientific information about best practice ways to integrate conservation and agriculture in the temperate eucalypt woodland belt of eastern Australia. It is based on the large body of scientific literature in this field, as well as long-term studies at 790 permanent sites on over 290 farms extending throughout Victoria, New South Wales and south-east Queensland. Richly illustrated, with chapters on birds, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates and plants, this book illustrates how management interventions can promote nature conservation and what practices have the greatest benefit for biodiversity. Together the new insights in this book inform whole-of-farm planning.