Kimberley Rainforests of Australia

World-wide interest and concern about rainforests is reflectee in the spate of recent publications on the subject. Objective, systematic approaches to the description and conservation of rainforests have developed rapidly during the 1980s. This book comprises 21 refereed papers reporting aspects of a three-year study of the ecology of a remote, poorly known region of Western Australia. Prior to this study, little was known about the 1,500+ patches of "raingreen forest" that occur in the region.

Not only does the book communicate the beauty of these rainforests, it also emphasizes their intricacy.

The ecological study was carried out by fifteen Australian scientists, specialists in remote sensing, botany, zoology, soils, conservation ecology and biogegraphy. They used state-of-the-art techniques of sampling and analysis. The results are interpreted into the available scientific literature, current at December 1989. The book culminates in an integrated quantitative analysis of the ecology, biogeography and conservation status of the region's rainforest communities.

The book is also intended as a source reference for future research, monitoring and management. Thus, it includes comprehensive lists of plants, birds and land snails for the 95 rainforest patches that were sampled during the course of the ecological survey, and inventories of spiders, ants, earthworms, beetles, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals for a representative sub-set of these patches. Aboriginal names are listed for many of the plants and animals. Soils, climatic and landform data are provided for each patch, and analysed in relation to biological patterns. With these data, professional users can re-interpret its findings for themselves, or make quantitative comparisons with their own data.