Yalgoo is an interim Australian bioregion located in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It has an area of . The bioregion, together with the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low rel ...

and

Geraldton Sandplains Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion of Western Australia. It has an area of . The Geraldton Sandplains is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion, as asses ...

bioregions, is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion as classified by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...

Geography

The Yalgoo bioregion extends southeastwards from the southern end of

Shark Bay Shark Bay () is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The area is located approximately north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage S ...

on Australia's west coast nearly to

Lake Barlee Lake Barlee is an intermittent salt lake. With a surface area of , it is the second largest lake in Western Australia. Description Lake Barlee is situated on the Yilgarn block southeast of Youanmi, Western Australia, Youanmi and north of Bull ...

in the interior of Western Australia. The western portion, known as the Edel subregion, includes the Edel Land peninsula and

Dirk Hartog Dirk Hartog (; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artifact to record hi ...

, Bernier, and Dorre islands, which enclose Shark Bay on the west. It also includes the coastal plain south of Shark Bay nearly to Kalbarri, where it transitions to the

bioregion. The Edel subregion rests on the Carnarvon and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

sedimentary basins. The Zuytdorp Cliffs line the coast from the northern end of Edel Land to the mouth of the Murchison River. Soils are generally white sands along the coast, and pale red quaternary sands further inland.Desmond, Anthony, and Alanna Chant (2001). "Geraldton Sandplains 1 (GS1 - Edel subregion)" in ''A Biodiversity Audit of Western Australia’s 53 Biogeographical Subregions in 2002''. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Government of Western Australia, November 2001

/ref> The Tallering subregion includes the Toolonga Plateau, part of the Carnarvon basin, and extends southeastward across the Yilgarn craton, an uplifted block of ancient crystalline rock.Desmond, Anthony, and Alanna Chant (2001). "Geraldton Sandplains 1 (GS1 - Edel subregion)" in ''A Biodiversity Audit of Western Australia’s 53 Biogeographical Subregions in 2002''. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Government of Western Australia, November 2001

/ref>

Subregions

In the

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeography, biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities ( ...

(IBRA) system it has the code of YAL, and it has two sub-regions. Earlier versions of the IBRA included the Edel subregion in the

bioregion. 2004's version 6.1 of the IBRA added the Edel subregion to the Yalgoo bioregion, and re-designated the original Yalgoo bioregion as the Tallering subregion.

Climate

The bioregion has a semi-arid

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, with hot, dry summers and mild winters. Most rainfall is in the winter months. Yalgoo bioregion is in the transitional region, or interzone, between the Mediterranean climate

Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Au ...

and the deserts of central Australia.

Flora and fauna

Common plant communities in the Edel subregion include tree-heaths dominated by members of the

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

plant family, and ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

–

Casuarina ''Casuarina'', also known as she-oak, Australian pine and native pine, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Casuarinaceae, and is native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and e ...

'' thickets. The vegetation of the Tallering subregion is characterised by woodlands, dominated by species of ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

'', and ''

Callitris ''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. p ...

''. Plant communities include ''

– Eucalyptus salubris'' woodlands, mulga (''

Acacia aneura ''Acacia aneura'', commonly known as mulga, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to inland Australia. It is a variable shrub or small tree with flat, narrowly linear to elliptic phyllodes, cylindrical spike ...

'') woodlands, and bowgada (''Acacia ramulosa'') open woodlands and scrub. The Tallering subregion is particularly rich in herbaceous

ephemeral plant An ephemeral plant is a plant with a very short life cycle or very short period of active growth, often one that grows only during brief periods when conditions are favorable. Several types of ephemeral plants exist. The first, spring ephemeral, r ...

s. Native mammals include the

boodie The boodie (''Bettongia lesueur''), also known as the burrowing bettong or Lesueur's rat-kangaroo, is a small, furry, rat-like mammal native to Australia. Once common throughout the continent, it is now restricted to a few coastal islands. A memb ...

(''Bettongia lesueur''), rufous hare-wallaby (''Lagorchestes hirsutus''), banded hare-wallaby (''Lagostrophus fasciatus''),

western barred bandicoot The Western barred bandicoot (''Perameles bougainville''), also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot or the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore isl ...

(''Perameles bougainville''), and Shark Bay mouse (''Pseudomys fieldi''). These mammals' current range is mostly limited to the Edel subregion, although some formerly had a wider range. Native birds include the

malleefowl The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...

(''Leipoa ocellata'') and western grasswren (''Amytornis textilis''). A subspecies of purple-backed fairywren, ''Malurus assimilis bernieri'', is found only on Bernier and Dorre islands, and the black and white fairy wren (''Malurus leucopterus leucopterus''), a subspecies of

white-winged fairywren The white-winged fairywren (''Malurus leucopterus'') is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It lives in the drier parts of Central Australia; from central Queensland and South Australia across to Western Aust ...

, is found only on Dirk Hartog Island. The sandhill frog (''Arenophryne rotunda'') is a limited-range species found in the Edel subregion and the northern

bioregion.

Land use

The predominant land use is livestock pasturing on natural vegetation.

Protected areas

12.53% of the Yalgoo bioregion is in protected areas.Lucinda Douglass, Carol Booth, Simon Kennedy, and Joel Turner (2019). ''An extraordinary natural legacy: An assessment and recommendations for the proposed expansion of Western Australia’s conservation reserve system''. Commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Centre for Conservation Geography, March 2019. Much of the Edel subregion is within the

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

area. 32.28% of the subregion is protected, and protected areas include Shark Bay Marine Park, Dirk Hartog Island National Park, Zuytdorp Nature Reserve, and Toolonga Nature Reserve. Only 3.56 of the Tallering subregion is in protected areas.