The Carnarvon xeric shrublands is a

deserts and xeric shrublands Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (Ancient Greek 'dry') shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this habitat ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

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 ...

. The ecoregion is coterminous with the Carnarvon

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) bioregion.IBRA Version 6.1
data

Location and description

The ecoregion covers an area of from the bounded by the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

to the west from the Peron Peninsula in

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 ...

up to the

North West Cape North West Cape is a peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia. Cape Range National Park, Cape Range runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge. It is in the Gascoyne region and includes the town of ...

. The

Pilbara shrublands The Pilbara shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion in Western Australia. It is coterminous with the Pilbara IBRA region. For other definitions and uses of "Pilbara region" see Pilbara. Geography The Pilbara shrublands is bounded ...

lie to the northeast, the

Western Australian mulga shrublands The Western Australian Mulga shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of inland Western Australia. It is one of Australia's two mulga ecoregions, characterized by dry woodlands of mulga trees (''Acacia aneura'' and related species) ...

to the east, and the Southwest Australia savanna to the south. The region is named for the coastal town of Carnarvon and includes a number of coastal towns and tourist resorts. 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 The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

strata. This is a very dry region with less than of rainfall per year. The ecoregion covers the on-shore portion of the Carnarvon Basin, a physiographic province of the larger West Australian Shield division.

Sub-regions

The Carnarvon bioregion has two sub-regions: *Wooramel, which is a significant part of the Shark Bay World Heritage areaWestern Australia. Dept. of Environment and Conservation. (2007)Shark Bay terrestrial reserves and proposed reserve additions : draft management plan 2007 Department of Environment and Conservation ; Conservation Commission of Western Australia. Bentley, W.A.: Dept. of Environment and Conservation. pages 37-39 section Bioregions and Figure 4: IBRA sub-regions of the Shark Bay Area (map) *Cape Range

Flora

Low

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. * Rock samphire ('' Crithmum maritimum'') is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Uni ...

and

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

shrublands cover the saline alluvial plains,

snakewood Snakewood is a common name of several different plants: * ''Acacia'' species (family Fabaceae) in Australia, ''Acacia eremaea'', ''Acacia intorta'', ''Acacia xiphophylla'' * ''Brosimum guianense'' (= ''Piratinera guianensis'') (family Moraceae) (Le ...

(''Acacia xiphophylla'') scrublands cover the clay flats, Bowgada (''Acacia ramulosa'') 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. Other trees in the area include limestone wattle ('' Acacia sclerosperma'') with an undergrowth of dead finish (''

Acacia tetragonophylla ''Acacia tetragonophylla'', commonly known as curara, kurara or dead finish, is a tree in the family (biology), family Fabaceae that is endemism, endemic to arid and semi-arid parts of central and western Australia. Description Curara grows as a ...

''). The sheltered embayments and extensive tidal flats along the coast support

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

Fauna

Wildlife of the area includes birds such as the western grasswren and the

red-tailed black cockatoo The red-tailed black cockatoo (''Calyptorhynchus banksii'') also known as Banksian- or Banks' black cockatoo, is a large black cockatoo native to Australia. Adult males have a characteristic pair of bright red panels on the tail that gives ...

. This is also the area where it is possible that there may be a surviving population of the

lesser stick-nest rat The lesser stick-nest rat or white-tipped stick-nest rat (''Leporillus apicalis'') is an extinct species of rodent in the family Muridae. It lived in central Australia where it built nests of sticks that accumulate over years and can become very ...

which is thought to be extinct.

Protected areas

Protected areas in the ecoregion include Cape Range National Park, Francois Peron National Park and Kennedy Range National Park.

Location and description

Sub-regions

Flora

Fauna

Protected areas

References

Further reading