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Structure and Functional Response of Ecosystems in the Mediterranean Climate of Australia

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Mediterranean Type Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 7))

Abstract

The mediterranean-type climate of Australia, with wet winter periods alternating with dry summer periods, is confined to the south-west corner of Western Australia, the southern portion of South Australia, and the western half of Victoria. To the north it grades into the semi-arid zone of the interior of Australia; in the east, it merges with areas receiving increasing amounts of summer rainfall. Within this zone, annual precipitation varies from 250 to 1,500 mm with 5–15% of this precipitation falling during the summer months, December to February. This small incidence of summer rainfall appears to have enabled certain growth patterns atypical of most mediterranean regions of the world to persist in the southern Australian vegetation.

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Authors
  1. Raymond L. Specht
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

    Francesco di Castri

  2. Section of Ecology, UNESCO, Paris, France

    Francesco di Castri

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Harold A. Mooney

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© 1973 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

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Specht, R.L. (1973). Structure and Functional Response of Ecosystems in the Mediterranean Climate of Australia. In: di Castri, F., Mooney, H.A. (eds) Mediterranean Type Ecosystems. Ecological Studies, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65520-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65520-3_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-65522-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-65520-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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