Uluru (Ayers Rock), Northern Territory, Australia Photograph by Gerhard Ortner   Central Australia Deserts and Xeric Shrublands   108,800 square miles (281,700 square kilometers) -- about the size of Colorado and Connecticut combined Vulnerable

· Location and General Description
· Biodiversity Features
· Current Status
· Threats
· Ecoregion Justification
· References
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Location and General Description

Biodiversity Features

Current Status

Types and Severity of Threats

Justification of Ecoregion Delineation

The Central Ranges Xeric Shrub ecoregion contains four IBRAs: ‘Burt Plain’, ‘MacDonnell Ranges’, ‘Finke’, and ‘Central Ranges’ (Thackway and Cresswell 1995). Vegetation includes mulga scrubland, grassland, and open woodland on sandridges and sandplains with highlands that include the ‘Central Australian Mountain Ranges’ Centre of Plant Diversity (Latz and Pitts 1995).

References

Latz, P. K. and B. Pitts. 1995. Central Australian Mountain Ranges. Pages 467 – 470 in S. D. Davis, V. H. Heywood and A. C. Hamilton. editors. Centres of Plant Diversity. Volume 2. Asia, Australasia, and the Pacific. WWF/IUCN, IUCN Publications Unit, Cambridge, UK.

Thackway, R. and I. D. Cresswell. editors. 1995. An Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia: a framework for establishing the national system of reserves, Version 4.0. Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Canberra.

For more general information on this ecoregion, go to the WildWorld version of this description.