Slower the eye can see
The Tropical Savannas CRC has published a photo history of
environmental change in the Northern Territory's Victoria River
District.
Historian Darrell Lewis looks at the district from the time of
European explorers to the present day, and features pairs of
historical and modern photographs that reveal how the country has
altered. Click here to read more >>
Savanna Explorer
Our new website, Savanna Explorer, has landscape change photos
from the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory.
Go
there to view the photos >>
Collaboration
The Dynamic Savanna project will bring together a wide group of
people interested in the ecology and productivity of woodlands. The
CRC project will interact several projects from other agencies, as
well as the CRC's fire management research activities.
Read about the links >>
Vegetation change in northern Australia
Above, Timber Creek in the Northern Territory in
1950, and again in 1996, below. There is a widespread view that the
primary cause of thickening is an interaction between fire and
grazing; however in some areas thickening is occurring in the
absence of grazing, and in other areas uncontrolled wildfire is
causing thinning. We need to gain a more comprehensive
understanding of the direction of change in savanna ecosystems.
Vegetation thickening and thinning is a widespread ecological
phenomenon in tropical Australian savannas.
Because they affect the tree–grass balance, both
thickening and thinning of vegetation are likely to impact on
pastoral productivity and on habitat for biodiversity.
The Dynamic Savanna project will try to provide a more
comprehensive understanding of the direction of change in savanna
ecosystems, assess the rate of this change, to document the native
and exotic species involved, and to clarify the effects of a
diverse range of causal factors on the balance between grass and
woody vegetation in the savannas.
Cllick on Dynamic Savanna on the menu at left to go to the
project.
