T5.3 Sclerophyll hot deserts and semi-deserts

T5. Deserts and semi-deserts biome

T5

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/T5.3

Brief description

Sclerophyll hot deserts and semi-deserts occur across central and western Australia on sandy soils. Dry and very low nutrient conditions favour dominance of long-lived hard-leaved shrubs and hummock grasses. This vegetation concentrates scarce resources in patches that provide critical refuges for invertebrates, reptiles, ground-nesting birds and small mammals, whose digging activity contributes to nutrient cycling. Fires periodically liberate resources and restructure these ecosystems. Episodic rain storms regulated by regional climate cycles produce a ‘boom’ in productivity, with emergence of short-lived plants and high, but transient abundance of small mammals.

Key features

Perennial sclerophyll shrubs and Hummock C4 grasses on nutrient-poor soils; highly variable rainfall, high diversity and endemism.

Overview of distribution

Central Australia on sandy substrates; extremely arid with hot summers and and cool winters..

Map description

Major and minor occurrences were initially identified using consensus land-cover maps (Tuanmu et al. 2014) and then cropped to selected terrestrial ecoregions (Dinerstein et al. 2017) at 30 arc seconds spatial resolution. Ecoregions were selected if: i) their descriptions mentioned features consistent with those identified in the profile of the Ecosystem Functional Group; and ii) if their location was consistent with the ecological drivers described in the profile..

Map code and version: T5.3.web.mix v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): MG Tozer; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-31): MG Tozer; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): MG Tozer; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Web navigation (code: T5.3.web.mix, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map (code: T5.3.WM.nwx, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: T5.3.IM.alt, version v2.0)
  • Indicative Map: replaced (code: T5.3.IM.orig, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: T5.3.web.orig, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: superceeded (code: T5.3.IM.mix, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Keith DA (2004) Ocean shores to desert dunes: the native vegetation of NSW and the ACT NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Sydney
  • Morton S, Stafford Smith DM, Dickman CR, Dunkerley DL, Friedel MH, McAllister RRJ, Reid RW, Roshier DA, Smith MA, Walsh FJ, Wardle GM, Watson IW, Westoby M (2011) A fresh framework for the ecology of arid Australia Journal of Arid Environments 75: 313-329 DOI:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2010.11.001

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Beck, H., Zimmermann, N., McVicar, T. et al. (2018) Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution Sci Data 5, 180214 DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214
  • Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line
  • Keith, D. A. & Tozer, M. G. (2017) Girt: a continental synthesis of Australian vegetation Australian vegetation. D. A. Keith. Editor, pp3-39. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  • Tuanmu, M.-N. and W. Jetz (2014) A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modeling Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(9):1031–1045 DOI:10.1111/geb.12182

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎