Australian Deserts
Ecology and Landscapes
By: Steve Morton
Describes the ecology of Australian deserts and how desert-dwelling plants and animals succeed.
Australian Deserts: Ecology and Landscapes is about the vast sweep of the Outback, a land of expanses making up three-quarters of the continent – the heart of Australia. Steve Morton brings his extensive first-hand knowledge and experience of arid Australia to this book, explaining how Australian deserts work ecologically. + Full description
This book outlines why unpredictable rainfall and paucity of soil nutrients underpin the nature of desert ecosystems, while also describing how plants and animals came to be desert dwellers through evolutionary time. It shows how plants use uncertain rainfall to provide for persistence of their populations, alongside outlines of the dominant animals of the deserts and explanations of the features that help them succeed in the face of aridity and uncertainty.
Richly illustrated with the photographs of Mike Gillam, this fascinating and accessible book will enhance your understanding of the nature of arid Australia.
Winner, The Royal Zoological Society of NSW 2022 Whitley Medal
- Short descriptionNews
Read more on our blog:
Australian Deserts won the prestigious Whitley Medal in the 2022 Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Awards – Steve Morton shares what the win means to him: Whitley Awards 2022: Celebrating Australasian zoological literature
Reviews
"This is an important book, in that it helps demystify the majority of the country, by area, in a clear and accessible way. It also manages to be very beautiful – did I mention that the photos are superb? And yes, I really do love this book."
Ian Fraser Natural History Reviews #30, January 2022
"[Morton] reads the landscape with a scientist’s eye and an artist’s heart. Australian Deserts reflects this – it is, he writes, “a narrative rather than a scientific text”, and his prose is compelling and polished."
RM Williams Outback Magazine, 1 May 2022
"The book is so rich with wondrous details that readers will likely develop their own catalogues. Morton has a gift for bringing to life what he calls the ‘more patient and less dramatic lifestyles’ of species that endure dry times. With its breadth and depth of ecological knowledge, enlivened by personal observation, Australian Deserts surely belongs among classics such as Finlayson’s The Red Centre."
Saskia Beudel, Australian Book Review #442, May 2022
"How do we learn to see the richness and diversity of this life? How do we read Country for its presences and absences? How do we fi ne-tune our capacity as humans to appreciate and understand the miracles that unfold at our feet and under the skies every day and night? These are beautiful, inspiring, exhilarating questions and they underpin this book, which is a glowing compendium of intelligent wonder.
Steve Morton is our guide in this quest, an admired CSIRO scientist, a renowned ecologist and a gift ed writer, and he is introducing us to his home, the beautiful and diverse arid lands of Australia. Australian Deserts: Ecology and Landscapes is about two-thirds of the continent, an astonishing and vast region, and everything that lives in it."
Tom Griffiths, Inside Story, 15 November 2022
Details
Paperback | February 2022 | $ 59.99ISBN: 9781486305995 | 304 pages | 270 x 210 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Colour illustrations, Colour photographs
ePDF | February 2022
ISBN: 9781486306008
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
ePUB | February 2022
ISBN: 9781486306015
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
Features
- Describes many of the peculiar plants and animals that can be found in the Australian Outback.
- Explains how many species have overcome adversity to survive and thrive in this harsh environment.
- Celebrates Australian deserts through an engaging exploration of their unique and complex ecosystems.
- Features stunning images of diverse desert landscapes and more, by renowned photographer Mike Gillam.
Contents
Preface1. Far horizons
2. Blue skies, occasional rain
3. Plant life
4. Harvesting plant life
5. Waste not
6. Invertebrate predators
7. Vertebrate predators
8. By the waterhole
9. Life in the Australian deserts
Glossary
Common and scientific names
Endnotes
Index
Authors
Dr Steve Morton is an Honorary Professorial Fellow with Charles Darwin University. He is an ecologist who studied at the Universities of Melbourne, California and Sydney. He joined CSIRO in Alice Springs in 1984 to work in the desert environment that has long been his focus. From 2000 until 2010, based in Canberra and Melbourne, he helped lead CSIRO as Chief of Division and Executive Team member.
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