Australian Biological Resources Study

The vegetation of Tasmania, like that of any other region of the world, is imperfectly known, but this book synthesises our knowledge, covering all the major terrestrial vegetation types as well as introducing the climate, geology, ecological processes and general environment of Tasmania, the plant fossil record, endemism and conservation imperatives. Most of the chapters deal with the living vegetation, but always underlying that theme is the historical significance of the processes that shaped it.

Tasmania is one of the few very significant land masses in the Southern Hemisphere with a vegetation that, if properly understood, provides clear insight into the history of a much larger part of the world.

Tasmania was once part of the supercontinent Gondwana, and lay alongside Antarctica for millions of years while this entire landmass shifted its position across tens of degrees of latitude and longitude (the Gondwanic waltz).

Although some elements of the extant Tasmanian flora may have been in place prior to the arrival of the angiosperms, it was no doubt this event that made the major impact. Tasmania was one of the first parts of Australia to receive the newly arriving angiosperms that were migrating across what is now Antarctica during the Cretaceous. Following the final separation of Tasmania from Antarctica, and the increasingly rapid northward movement of Australia, the climate became cooler and drier, and the Tasmanian vegetation began to evolve towards its modern form.

The periodic glaciations of the last two million years also profoundly affected the landscape, carving huge glacial valleys and forcing the vegetation into rapid adaptation or extinction.

Mostly recently, human influence, firstly of the Tasmanian Aborigines and then the Europeans, has produced the vegetation patterns of today.

About the book
Size: 297 × 210 mm (A4), xx + 456 pages, index, bibliography
Binding: soft cover, section stitched
Illustrations: 39 colour plates,115 black and white plates including maps

The reprint is available from School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania (UTAS) at http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/plantsci/newsdetail.asp?lNewsEventId=1367

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