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Human History
European settlement of Southwestern Australia did not occur until the early 19th century. Agricultural expansion, grazing, and deforestation over the past century have had profound ecological effects and have fragmented the natural landscape. Introduced animal species such as rabbits, foxes, cats and ferrets have had a dramatic influence on the unique native biota of this
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Plant Diversity
The Southwestern Australia floristic region includes about 6800 species present, with large numbers of new species continuing to be described. Including species that extend slightly beyond the Southwestern Botanical Province into a transitional interzone, 79% of the flora has been considered to be endemic, but newer analyses are lowering this figure. Notable endemics include one
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Vertebrate Diversity
The vertebrate fauna of Australian MTEs shows no unusual level of high diversity of endemism. The majority of the fauna in these MTEs are populations of more typically arid or mesic habitat species whose ranges extend into Southwestern or South Australia. Thus, the majority of the vertebrates appear to have relatively broad ecological niches rather
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Landscape
Core mediterranean-climate conditions are present in southwestern Western Australia and in South Australia around Adelaide. The core Southwestern Floristic Province of Western Australia is about 302 x 103 km2 in area, similar in size to the California floristic province. A broader region with transitional rainfall patterns with biseasonal distribution is often included as well, almost
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Human History
A long history of human impacts on the natural landscape over thousands of years has strongly affected the environments of this region and has accelerated over the past century. Many of our Western cooking herbs such as rosemary, thyme, tarragon, sage, and oregano are native to the Mediterranean Basin. Most of the modern grape varieties
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Plant Diversity
The vascular plant flora of the Mediterranean Basin is estimated to include about 25,000 species (22,500 native species), making this region the richest among MTEs in total plant diversity. By comparison, the remaining portions of Europe without mediterranean-type climate regimes cover four times as much area but have only about 6000 vascular plant species.
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Vertebrate Diversity
VERTEBRATE DIVERSITY Vertebrate faunas of the Mediterranean Basin share the characteristic of multiple biogeographic origins with vascular plants. Dramatic climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene led to periodic turnovers of Eurasian and African faunal elements and a resulting isolation of populations. The present fauna of land mammal species for the Mediterranean Basin number about 224
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Landscape
The Mediterranean Basin represents the largest area of MTEs in the world, covering a complex landscape with a large amount of topographic and climatic heterogeneity. The total area of the region is about 2.3 x 103 km2, nearly 10 times greater in size than any other MTE region. This area includes more than20 nations arrayed
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Human History
Human history in the Cape Region of South Africa dates back as much as 150,000 years, with evidence of active hunter-gatherer tribes in the region 21,000 years ago. Bushmen occupied the area until the 17th century when European settlers arrived. Although little or no agriculture was possible on the poor fynbos soils, the Dutch brought
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Plant Diversity
The Cape Region contains what is arguably the most unique and diverse floras of any temperate area of the world. Its status as a distinct floral kingdom is reinforced by the presence of five endemic families—Geissolomataceae, Grubbiaceae, Penaeaceae, Roridulaceae, and Stilbaceae. Moreover, there are 193 endemic genera, which is 19.5% of the total. Covering an
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Vertebrate Diversity
The Cape Region lacks a distinctive mammal fauna. This region contains 127 species of native mammals, with 90 being present in the Southwest Cape area. The regional total is less than half of the mammal species occurring within all of South Africa. The largest orders present are the Rodentia and the Carnivora. The rodents are
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Landscape
The Cape Region forms a small area on the southwestern tip of the African continent. This landscape has ancient mountain ranges that have weathered over millions of years into acidic sandy soils low in nutrients which are critical for plant growth. The Cape Region is renowned for its showy and diverse flora and is unlike
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Human History
Human impact on this area was relatively low in the pre- Columbian era when central Chile was the southern limit of the Incan Empire. The arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the early 16th century changed this situation and led to rapid agricultural expansion and landscape clearance for grazing by goats and cattle. The lack
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Human History
Native Americans entered California 10-12,000 years ago. Although population densities were never high, these peoples nevertheless had significant impacts on their environment, most notably through the use of fire. Rapid population growth in California began with the discovery of gold in 1848, and continues today with associated agricultural expansion, land clearance, and urbanization. Invasive
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Landscape
The political boundaries of the state of California cover an area of 411 x 103 km2, but the area includes more than the core area of mediterranean-type climate. These political boundaries include winter rainfall portions of the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts, as well as areas of cold desert habitats east of the Sierra Nevada. The
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Plant Diversity
California as a political unit contains 4839 native vascular plants species, with 3488 of these within the California Floristic Province. For the state flora, the total includes 99 ferns and fern relatives, 60 gymnosperms (53 conifers), 823 monocots, and 3862 dicots. The largest family in this flora is the Asteraceae with 627 native species,
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Vertebrate Diversity
The terrestrial mammal fauna of California includes about 160 species, with rodents making up more than half of this total. Among these, however, are 30 species restricted to the desert regions of the state and thus not part of the strict mediterranean-climate region. That leaves a total of about 130 terrestrial mammals native to the
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Plant Diversity
The age and evolutionary isolation of the Chilean flora is clearly indicated by the large number of families that are largely endemic to the Chilean floristic region, which includes adjacent areas of austral forest in southern Argentina. One family of ferns, the Thyrsopteridaceae, and 10 families of Angiosperms are endemic to Chile in a broad
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Vertebrate Diversity
Mammal diversity in Chile, as in other parts of temperate South America, is low. It has been suggested that severe climatic conditions associated with Pleistocene glacial movements in the Andes may have had a strong impact in reducing the diversity of temperate mammal faunas in South America. Major faunal extinctions were also present in South
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Landscape
The political boundaries of Chile provide relatively natural biogeographic boundaries because of the topography of desert, mountain, and ocean boundaries. To the north is the hyperarid Atacama Desert, which reaches its extreme of conditions in the Tacna-Arica region along the Peruvian border. Here, a virtual absence of rainfall separates the Peruvian floristic elements of the
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Table Mountain
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House Sparrow