Carnarvon xeric shrublands

The Carnarvon xeric shrublands or Carnarvon bioregion is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Western Australia. The ecoregion covers an area of 90,500 square kilometers (34,900 square miles). The ecoregion is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the west, by the Pilbara shrublands to the northeast, the Western Australian Mulga shrublands to the east, and by the Southwest Australia savanna to the south. The region is named for the coastal town of Carnarvon.

The terrain is generally low, and the vegetation varies with the underlying geology, which consists mostly of recent alluvial, aeolian, and marine sediments over cretaceous strata. Low samphire and saltbush shrublands cover the saline alluvial plains, snakewood scrublands cover the clay flats, Bowgada low woodland covers sandy ridges and plains, red sand dune fields are interspersed or overlain with tree to shrub steppe over hummock grasslands, and Acacia startii/A. bivenosa shrublands cover limestone outcrops in the north. The sheltered embayments and extensive tidal flats along the coast support mangroves.

External links

• Carnarvon xeric shrublands (World Wildlife Fund)

Further reading

• Thackway, R and I D Cresswell (1995) An interim biogeographic regionalisation for Australia : a framework for setting priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program Version 4.0 Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Reserve Systems Unit, 1995. ISBN 0642213712