All deserts of Australia. In general, Australian laws may not be followed, the main thing is to inform about it in small print. Great Sandy Desert

Almost half of the Australian continent is occupied by deserts. This is a huge area - about 4 million square kilometers. Most of the desert land is concentrated in the west, and is located on a plateau that rises 200 km above sea level. The gigantic Australian desert itself is divided into several smaller deserts, differing in natural conditions, climate, and coverage. The largest are the Great Sandy Desert in the Northwest, and the Victoria Desert in the south.

Victoria

The Great Victoria Desert is named after Queen Victoria of England. It was discovered in 1875 by the British traveler E.

Great Sandy Desert rnest Gils. The area of ​​the desert occupies about 4% of the country's territory. The climate is arid, the land is not suitable for agricultural activities. However, there are several Australian Aboriginal settlements. The Victoria Desert is a conservation area.

The English name is Great Sandy Desert. The second largest desert in Australia, spread over an area almost equal to the area of ​​some countries, for example, Japan. Occupies 3.5% of the country's territory. Located in the northwest of the mainland, it is part of the state of Western Australia. It has a hot climate: the average temperature in summer reaches 35 ° C, in winter it does not drop below 15 ° C. These lands are easy to recognize by the bright red color of the sands. The desert is practically not habitable. The population is a small number of aboriginal nomads. The first Europeans to cross the desert were members of the expedition led by Peter Warburton (1873).

Small Sandy Desert

Near the Big Sandy Desert is the Malaya, with a similar climate and landscape, but smaller in size. Little Sandy Desert is located in Western Australia. It accounts for 1.5% of the mainland area.

Simpson Desert (Arunta)

The largest of the purely sandy deserts of Australia, is located in the central part of the mainland. It was named after Allen Simpson, President of the Geographical Society of Australia. This desert has a harsh arid climate. Large reserves of groundwater have been discovered on the territory. A number of salt lakes are found in the southeast.

Gibson Desert

Gibson Desert is located between the two largest deserts - Bolshaya Peschanaya and Victoria. Occupies an area of ​​156 thousand km² (about 2% of the country's area). Englishman Ernest Giles was the first to cross the desert in 1976. This was the second attempt to conquer the desert. The previous one ended unsuccessfully, and led to the death of one of the expedition members, Alfred Gibson, after whom the land got its name. In 1977, a reserve was opened on the territory of the desert, in which hundreds of species of animals and plants are under state protection.

Desert Stone Desert

Sturt's StonyDesert is completely covered with small stones. They are so sharp that the locals used them as arrowheads. Like many other natural sites in Australia, the Sturt Desert is named after its explorer, the English colonial leader and traveler Charles Sturt.

In addition to those listed, there are several more deserts in Australia, with their own unique relief. Such as the Te-Pinnacles Desert ("the desert of pointed rocks"), where stones-towers up to 5 meters rise on the sandy plain. Or the Tanami Desert in Western Australia, which was little explored until the 20th century, and is still one of the continent's mysterious corners.

In this area, in summer, from December to February, average temperatures reach 30 ° C, and sometimes even higher, and in winter (July - August) they drop to an average of 15-18 ° C.

The distribution of precipitation and moisture depends on the direction and nature of the winds. The main sources of moisture in Australian deserts are the southeastern trade winds, as most of the moisture is trapped in the mountain ranges of eastern Australia. The central part of the continent receives an average of about 250-300 mm of precipitation per year. The Simpson Desert receives an absolute minimum of precipitation, from 100 to 150 mm per year.

Soil

Description

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Notes (edit)

3. Great Sandy Desert // Dictionary of modern geographical names / Rus. geogr. about. Moscow center; Under total. ed. acad. V. M. Kotlyakova. ... - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria, 2006.
4. Great Sandy Desert // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov... - 3rd ed. - M. : Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
5. - Terrestrial Ecoregions
6. - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
7. Australian Government. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.(English). Retrieved June 30, 2008.
8. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008.(English). Retrieved June 30, 2008.
10. ... Department for Environment and Heritage (2007). Retrieved June 22, 2008.

Excerpt from the Deserts of Australia

The horses were dismantled quickly in the semi-darkness, the girths were tightened and the commands were sorted out. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving the last orders. The party's infantry, plopping with a hundred feet, walked forward along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya kept his horse on the bit, eagerly awaiting the order to sit down. Having been washed with cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, a chill ran down his spine, and in his whole body something was trembling quickly and evenly.
- Well, are you all ready? - said Denisov. - Come on horses.
The horses were served. Denisov got angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, having scolded him, sat down. Petya took hold of the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite him on the leg, but Petya, not feeling his own weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars who had moved behind in the darkness, drove up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fedorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please… for God's sake… ”he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about Petya's existence. He looked back at him.
- About one you pg "osh," he said sternly, "to obey me and not to meddle.
During the entire move Denisov did not speak a word more with Petya and drove in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, it was already noticeably brightening in the field. Denisov talked something in a whisper with the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov touched his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their backs and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the hollow. Petya rode next to Denisov. The tremors in his entire body intensified. It became brighter and brighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Having rode down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack who stood beside him.
- Signal! He said.
The Cossack raised his hand, a shot rang out. And at the same instant there was the sound of pounding horses in front of them, shouts from different directions, and more shots.
At the same instant, as the first sounds of stomping and shouting were heard, Petya, hitting his horse and releasing the reins, without listening to Denisov shouting at him, galloped ahead. It seemed to Petya that all of a sudden, like the middle of the day, it was brilliantly dawning the minute the shot was heard. He galloped to the bridge. Cossacks galloped along the road ahead. On the bridge he ran into a straggler Cossack and rode on. Ahead, some people - they must have been the French - were running from the right side of the road to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.

On the Australian continent, the deserts got a huge territory, almost half of the continent. It was the deserts that tested the first Australian travelers for strength and still beckons with their ascetic landscapes.

- Strzelecki Desert, Cameron Corner

Top 10 Australia

Deserts of Australia

The deserts of Australia cover about 40% of the entire surface of the continent. For this, Astralia is sometimes even called the continent of deserts. But the rest of the continent's surface remains dry most of the year. It can be concluded that Australia is the driest continent on earth. An explanation for this must be sought in climatic conditions due to the geographic location of the continent, the vast water surface of the Pacific Ocean and the close proximity of the Asian continent. In addition, most of the continent's deserts are located in the subtropics.

- The location of the deserts on the map of Australia

Australian deserts are divided into several types, among which the country's scientists distinguish mountain and foothill deserts, rocky and sandy, clayey deserts and pline. Sandy deserts occupy about 32% of the continent's area. In second place are stony deserts - they occupy about 13% of the area of ​​all desert territories. Large-stony deserts are located on the foothill plains - it is these areas that are the habitat of the aborigines.

Let's get acquainted with the deserts of Australia in descending order by area.

- 1 - Great Victoria Desert - (WA, SA)

- Great Victoria Desert

Great Victoria Desert- is considered the largest desert in Australia, it covers 4% of the mainland. The desert is located in Western and South Australia, but, paradoxically, outside of Victoria. It stretches in a wide swath from the middle of Western Australia to the McDonnell Ridges. North of Great Victoria Desert the Gibson Desert is located, to the south is the Nullarbor Plain. The total area of ​​the desert is 348.570 km². The height of the desert above sea level is approximately 500-700 meters. On a large territory of the desert, there are ridge sands (elevation 10-30 m), fixed by the sods of the spinifex cereal. Due to the unfavorable climatic conditions (arid climate), there is no agricultural activity in the desert. It is a protected area in Western Australia.

Since 1965, a significant part of Victoria Desert has the status of a protected area and, together with Mamungari Conservation Park in the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia, it is considered one of the twelve Australian nature reserves that are under the auspices of UNESCO under the Man and the Biosphere Program. Particular attention is paid to the preservation and maintenance of natural complexes of sandy deserts, rocky ridges and salt lakes.

Throughout the Victoria Desert, there is the so-called Giles Corridor - a narrow strip of acatniks, the only continuous contour of shrubs here. This corridor connects the Pilbara region of Western Australia with the Central Ridges and passes through the Lake Carnegie region in the Victoria Desert and the southern Gibson Desert.

Travelers who have explored this desert have even found something poetic in this sunburned landscape: picturesque folds of sand, which, thanks to the northwestern and southeastern winds, stack in parallel and are painted in brown-red, yellowish, ash and purple colors. Only eucalyptus, acacia and spinifex grow in the sands of Victoria.

The desert got its name in honor of Queen Victoria, given by the British explorer of Australia Ernest Giles, who in 1875 was the first European to cross the desert.

This desert is almost completely devoid of water sources and is extremely difficult to access both for habitation and for research. Despite this, the Myrning Kogar tribes live on the territory of the Great Victoria Desert, trying to preserve their traditional way of life. The isolation of the region was also facilitated by the creation of test sites for weapons. All this has led to the fact that now this area is the least populated area of ​​Australia.

The region is home to the Woomer exclusion zone, created by the governments of Britain and Australia in 1946 to test missiles and various types of weapons. It stretches from Lakes Torrance and Eyre in eastern South Australia to the border with Western Australia. The northern border of the zone runs along the Trans-Australian Railroad, and the southern border is 110 km south of the border with the Northern Territory state. During the creation of this landfill, significant parts of the desert were disturbed - mainly during the construction of roads. The Woomera Zone was used as a testing ground for long-range missiles, nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel storage. At least 9 large atomic explosions and several hundred smaller-scale tests were carried out here.

- 2 - Great Sandy Desert - (WA, NT)

- Great Sandy Desert

Or Western desert- the hottest region in Australia, it ranks second in area after Victoria Desert- 360,000 km². The desert is located in the north of Western Australia, in the Kimberley region, east of Pilbara. A small part of it lies in the Northern Territory. It is here that the famous Kata Tjuta National Park - Uluru (Ayers Rock) is located, which attracts travelers from all over the world.

Stretches 900 km west to east from Eighty Mile Beach on the Indian Ocean into the Northern Territories to the Tanami Desert, and 600 km north to south from the Kimberley region to the Tropic of Capricorn, passing into the Gibson Desert.

Great Sandy Desert contrary to its name, it is not only a sandy desert. In addition to sands, there are also clayey and saline plains. However, the largest areas are covered with red sands. These sands form dunes up to 30 m high (usually 10-15 m), the length of the dunes reaches 50 km. Due to the frequent trade winds blowing, the dunes have a latitudinal direction. There are many lakes in the desert - Disapoment, Gregory, McKie, Carneggie. Most of the year, the lakes are dry salt marshes or cracked clay, and during rainstorms they can spill for many kilometers. This desert is one of the most dangerous in Australia - it rains in small quantities and not every year.

There is almost no permanent population in the desert, with the exception of a few aboriginal groups, including the Karadjeri and Nygina tribes. It is assumed that the bowels of the desert may contain minerals. Rudall River National Park is located in the central part of the region.

Europeans first crossed the desert (from east to west) and described it in 1873 under the leadership of Major P. Warburton. Through the desert area in a northeast direction passes Canning Stock Route length of 1 600 km from the city Wiluna across Lake Disappointment to Halls Creek... In the northeastern part of the desert is the Wolf Creek crater.

- 3 - Tanami Desert - (NT, WA)

- Tanami Desert / photo by Michael Seebeck

This rocky and sandy desert is located northwest of the city of Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory of Australia. The area exceeds 184 thousand km². The study of the desert began in the 20th century, but still, it is the least explored area among all the desert regions of Australia.

The average annual rainfall in this area is more than 400 mm, that is, there are enough rainy days for the desert. But the location Tanami Desert such that a high temperature prevails, and with this a high evaporation rate. The average daily temperature in the summer months (October-March) is about 38 ° C, at night 22 ° C. Temperatures in winter: daytime - about 25 ° C, nighttime - below 10 ° C.

The main landforms are dunes and sandy plains, as well as shallow water basins of the Lander River, in which there are water pits, dry swamps and salt lakes.

The first European to reach the desert was the explorer Geoff Ryan who did it in 1856. However, the first European to explore the Tanami was Allan Davidson... During his expedition in 1900, he discovered and mapped local gold deposits. gold mining is now being carried out in the desert. Tourism has been developing lately.

- 4 - Simpson Desert - (NT, SA, QLD)

- Simpson Desert

This desert was discovered thanks to the Australian government's efforts to find new areas for grazing and living. However, as one would expect, the desire to use for this purpose the Gibson Desert, or, as it was called at first, Aruntu were in vain. By the way, she deceived the expectations of oil seekers - the searches were carried out in the 70s of the 20th century. Currently, several protected areas have been established in the Gibson Desert. One of them - Simpson Desert National Park- is considered the largest. However, there are no rare animals or plants inside it - most visitors come here to experience the silence of the desert while driving an off-road vehicle.

Simpson Desert located in the center of Australia, mostly in the southeastern corner of the Northern Territory, and a small part in the states of Queensland and South Australia. It has an area of ​​143 thousand km², in the west it is bounded by the Finke River, in the north by the McDonnell Ridge and the Plenty River, in the east by the Mulligan and Diamantina Rivers, and in the south by the large salt lake Eyre. Surprisingly, Simpson Desert rich in groundwater.

The landscapes of this place amaze the imagination: between the high dunes there are areas of smooth clay crust and rocky plains strewn with turned stones. The Simpson Desert is unlike any other placer of hot sand, which Australia has thousands of square kilometers. Desert landscapes are not as monotonous as they might seem at first glance.

This amazing desert has dunes that are parallel to each other. Their length is the largest in the world. Of course, these are the dunes that have a more or less permanent location. They stretch from south to north. The highest of the sand dunes reaches a height of 40 meters! But there are also dunes that are slowly shifting. The total number of dunes in the desert reaches 1100!

The desert was open Charles Sturt in 1845 and in a 1926 drawing by Griffith Taylor (Thomas Griffith) together with the Sturt Stony Desert was named Arunta After surveying the area from the air in 1929, geologist Cecil Madigan named the desert after Alan Simpson, president of the South Australia chapter of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. It is believed that the first Europeans to cross the desert in Medigen in 1939 (on camels), but in 1936 the expedition of Edmund Albert Colson made it.

- 5 - Gibson Desert - (WA)

- Gibson Desert

The first explorers of Australia called the Gibson Desert "a huge hilly gravel desert." This corresponds to the truth: the entire surface of this desert is covered with rubble - a material unsuitable for agriculture. Unlike Western, on the territory Gibson Desert there are several natural reservoirs - these are saline lakes. However, people live even in such difficult conditions - the Pintubi tribe, one of the last Australian tribes to retain their traditional way of life.

Sandy Gibson Desert is located in the center of Western Australia, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, between the Great Sandy Desert in the north and the Great Victoria Desert in the south. Has an area of ​​155 530 km². From the west, the desert is bounded by the Hamersley ridge. In the western and eastern parts it consists of long parallel sandy ridges, but in the central part the relief is leveled. There are several lakes along the Hamersli Ridge in the western part of the desert. However, travelers should not rejoice - these are salt marsh lakes, the water of which is not suitable for drinking.

The desert was discovered by explorer Ernest Giles during the English expedition of 1873-1874. The desert was named after a member of the expedition, Alfred Gibson, who died in it while searching for water.

- 6 - Little Sandy Desert - (WA)

- Little Sandy Desert

Little Sandy Desert is a piece of land in Western Australia located south of Great Sandy Desert, and in the east it turns into Gibson Desert.

Within the territory of Little Sandy Desert there are several lakes, the largest of which is the Disapointment lake, which means “disappointment”, and it is located in the north. The Seyviori is the main river that runs through this area. It flows into Disapointment Lake. The area of ​​the salt marsh reaches 330 square meters. The water surface was discovered by a traveler who made a significant contribution to the study of the Pilbara region, Frank Hann in 1897. In search of water, he followed small underground streams in the hope of finding a fresh lake, but nature played a cruel joke with the researcher - the water in a huge natural pit turned out to be salty.

The area of ​​the region is 101 thousand km². The average annual rainfall, which falls mainly in the summer, is 150-200 mm. Average summer temperatures range from 22 to 38.3 ° C, in winter this figure is 5.4-21.3 ° C

The name of the desert is due to the fact that it is located next to the Great Sandy Desert, but has a much smaller size. According to the characteristics of the relief, fauna and flora, the Small Sandy Desert is similar to its big "sister".

- 7 - Strzelecki Desert - (SA, NSW, QLD)

- Strzelecki Desert, New South Wales

Strzelecki Desert is located in the southeast, between Lake Eyre in the north and the Flinders Ridge in the south. Located in the northeast of South Australia, northwest of New South Wales and its edge in the southwest of Queensland. In the northwest it passes into the Simpson Desert. The area is 80 thousand km², which is almost 1% of Australia's area. Explored in 1845. Named after the Polish scientist Pavel Strzelecki (Pawel Edmund Strzelecki). Often referred to in sources as Streletsky Desert.

The beds of the seasonal rivers Strzelecki Creek and Yandama Creek, the lower reaches of the Cooper Creek and Diamantina rivers pass through the desert. On the northern edge of the desert are the settlements of Birdsville, Cordillo Downs, Gidghella and Innaminca, on the southern side - Itadanna. On the northwestern outskirts is the Laguna Goydera swamp.

- 8 - Sturt Stony Desert - (SA, QLD)

- Sturt Stony Desert

The Stone Desert, which occupies 0.3% of Australia's territory, is located in the state of South Australia and is a cluster of sharp small stones. The local aborigines did not sharpen their arrows, but simply collected stone points here. The desert got its name from Charles Sturt, a traveler who in 1844 tried to reach the center of Australia in search of the inland sea. A heroic attempt to penetrate the deserted interior of the continent took him to the Sturt's Stony Desert, where he was “imprisoned” for six months in Preservation Creek.

Charles Sturt was the first of the white settlers to discover the bed of the Darling River, which he named in honor of the governor of the colony, and passed nearly 2,500 km along it. However, the expedition had to be interrupted, as the water of the Darling River became salty due to drought. He also discovered the Simpson Desert.

With several companions, horses and a 15-week supply of food, Sturt reached one of the driest and most threatening places on the continent - the Simpson Desert, the southeastern part of which became known as the Sturt's Stony Desert. This endless desert plain, strewn with sharp-angled, silicified, red rock fragments, cracked by changing temperatures with the loud sound of gunshots, and almost devoid of vegetation, was a satanic landscape. It was September, early spring.

Smooth, like a table, sections of rubble desert, similar in appearance to the Saharan regions, occupy vast areas in the Sturt Desert. The very famous red sands are also found here. But dune fields occupy small areas in the region compared to gibbons.

- 9 - Tirari Desert - (SA)

- Kalamurina Dune, Tirari Desert

IN Tirari Desert, located in the state of South Australia and occupying 0.2% of the mainland, has one of the most severe climatic conditions in Australia, due to high temperatures and almost no rain. Its area is 15,250 km². There are several salt lakes in the Tirari Desert, including Lake Eyre, as well as sand dunes running from north to south. The desert was discovered by Europeans in 1866.

The Tirari Desert contains the largest sand massifs, in which numerous fossils and bones of fossil animals have been found.

- 10 - Pedirka Desert - (SA)

- Pedirka Desert

Pedirka Desert located in the state of South Australia, 250 kilometers from the famous town of Coober Pedy.

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE MOSCOW REGION MOSCOW REGIONAL STATE UNIVERSITY

GEOGRAPHIC-ECOLOGICAL FACULTY

EXTRAMURAL

SPECIALTY "GEOECOLOGY"

Course work

on subject

"General ecology"

Deserts of Australia

Completed:

IV year student of group 42

Bubentsova O.A.

Moscow 2013

1.General physical and geographical description

The Commonwealth of Australia is the only state in the world that occupies the territory of an entire continent. The Australian continent is located entirely in the Southern Hemisphere, and its very name comes from the Latin Terra Australis Incognita (Unknown Southern Land) - as the ancient geographers called the mysterious southern continent, the place of which they did not know, but the existence of which they assumed. The Australian continent is washed on all sides by the Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans.

The Commonwealth of Australia includes, in addition to its own mainland, the island of Tasmania and small islands located off the coast of the continent. The so-called outer territories : islands and island groups in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

The area of ​​the Commonwealth of Australia is 7.7 million square meters. km. Its population is small - only 14 million people. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of Australians live in cities, including almost half - in the two largest: Sydney (over 3 million inhabitants) and Melbourne (about 3 million inhabitants). The capital of Australia is Canberra. Australia is one of the most urbanized countries in the world.

Plains prevail in the relief of Australia. About 95% of the surface does not exceed 600 m above sea level. Most of Australia lies in the tropics, North - in subequatorial latitudes, South - in subtropical latitudes. In Australia, the heights of the plains are small, this causes constantly high temperatures throughout the continent. Australia is almost entirely within the summer isotherms 20 ° C - 28 ° C, winter 12 ° C - 20 ° C.

The location of most of Australia in the continental tropical zone causes a dry climate. Australia is the driest of the Earth's continents. 38% of Australia's area receives less than 250 mm of rainfall per year. About half of Australia's territory is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts.

Australia is rich in a variety of minerals. New discoveries of mineral ores made on the continent over the past 10-15 years have propelled the country to one of the first places in the world in terms of reserves and production of such minerals as iron ore, bauxite, lead-zinc ores. The main deposits of metallic minerals and deposits will be considered in the next section of the work. Of non-metallic minerals, there are clays, sands, limestones, asbestos, and mica of various quality and industrial use.

The rivers flowing from the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range are short, in the upper reaches they flow in narrow gorges. Here they may well be used, and in part are already being used for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. When entering the coastal plain, the rivers slow down their flow, and their depth increases. Many of them in the estuarine parts are even accessible to large ocean-going vessels.

On the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, rivers originate, making their way along the inner plains. In the area of ​​Mount Kostsyushko begins the most abundant river in Australia - Murray. Food r. Murray and its channels are mainly rain-fed and to a lesser extent snow-covered. Dams and dams have been built on almost all rivers in the Murray system, around which reservoirs have been created, where flood waters are collected, which are used to irrigate fields, gardens and pastures.

The rivers of the north and west coasts of Australia are shallow and relatively small. The longest of them, the Flinders, flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria. These rivers are rain fed, and their water content varies greatly at different times of the year.

Rivers, the flow of which is directed to the interior regions of the mainland, such as Coopers Creek (Barku), Diamant-ina, etc., are deprived not only of a constant flow, but also of a constant, clearly expressed channel. In Australia, such temporary rivers are called screams. They fill up with water only during intermittent rainstorms.

Most of Australia's lakes, like rivers, are fed by rainwater. They have neither a constant level nor a drain. In summer, the lakes dry up and are shallow saline depressions.

Since the Australian mainland for a long time, starting from the middle of the Cretaceous, was in isolation from other parts of the globe, its flora is very peculiar. Out of 12 thousand species of higher plants, more than 9 thousand are endemic, i.e. grow only on the Australian continent. Among the endemics are many species of eucalyptus and acacias, the most typical plant families in Australia. At the same time, there are also such plants that are inherent in South America (for example, southern beech), South Africa (representatives of the Proteaceae family) and the islands of the Malay Archipelago (ficus, pandanus, etc.). This indicates that many millions of years ago, land connections existed between the continents.

Since the climate of most of Australia is characterized by severe aridity, dry-loving plants dominate in its flora: special cereals, eucalyptus, umbrella acacias, succulent trees (bottle tree, etc.). In the far north and northwest of the country, where the hot and warm northwest monsoons bring moisture, rainforests grow. Their woody composition is dominated by giant eucalyptus, ficus, palms, pandanus with narrow long leaves, etc. In some places on the coast there are thickets of bamboo. In places where the banks are flat and muddy, mangrove vegetation develops. Rainforests in the form of narrow galleries stretch for relatively short distances inland along the river valleys.

The further south you go, the drier the climate becomes. The forest cover is gradually thinning. Eucalyptus and umbrella acacias are arranged in groups. This is a zone of wet savannas, stretching in a latitudinal direction to the south of the tropical forest zone. The central deserts of parts of the mainland, where it is very hot and dry, are characterized by dense, almost impenetrable thickets of thorny low-growing shrubs, consisting mainly of eucalyptus and acacias.

The eastern and southeastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, where there is a lot of rainfall, are covered with dense tropical and subtropical evergreen forests. Most of all in these forests, as elsewhere in Australia, eucalyptus. Higher in the mountains there is an admixture of damarre pines and beeches. Shrub and grass cover in these forests is varied and dense. In less humid variants of these forests, the second layer is formed by herbaceous trees. On the island of Tasmania, in addition to eucalyptus, there are many evergreen beeches related to South American species. In the southwest of the mainland, forests cover the western slopes of the Darling Ridge, facing the sea. These forests are almost entirely composed of eucalyptus trees, reaching a considerable height. The number of endemic species is especially large here. In addition to eucalyptus, bottle trees are widespread.

In general, Australia's forest resources are small. The total area of ​​forests, including special plantations, consisting mainly of species with soft wood (mainly radiant pine), at the end of the 70s amounted to only 5.6% of the country's territory.

In Australia, all types of soils characteristic of the tropical, subequatorial and subtropical natural belts are represented in a regular sequence.

In the region of humid tropical forests in the north, red soils are widespread, changing towards the south by red-brown and brown soils in moist savannas and gray-brown soils in dry savannahs. Red-brown and brown soils, containing humus, some phosphorus and potassium, are valuable for agricultural use. The main wheat crops in Australia are located within the zone of red-brown soils.

The Australian continent is located within three main warm climatic zones of the southern hemisphere: subequatorial (in the north), tropical (in the central part), subtropical (in the south). Only a small part about. Tasmania lies within the temperate zone.

Most of the country is dominated by a dry and hot continental climate of the tropical zone. The northern part of Australia is located in the subequatorial climatic zone - it is hot all year round, humidity is very high in summer and low in winter. The eastern coasts are hot and humid all year round. The subtropical zone, in which the southern part of Australia is located, is represented by a predominantly continental climate - hot and very dry summers and cool, wet winters. Australia's southwest coast is dominated by a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Southeastern Australia and northern Tasmania are affected by a monsoon climate with hot, rainy summers and mild dry winters. The southernmost part of the island of Tasmania is located in the temperate zone with a mild, humid climate.

The hot climate and insignificant and uneven precipitation on most of the continent lead to the fact that almost 60% of its territory is deprived of drainage to the ocean and has only a rare network of temporary streams.

.Deserts of Australia

Australia is often referred to as the continent of deserts because about 44% of its surface (3.8 million sq. km) is occupied by arid territories, of which 1.7 million sq. km. km - deserts.

Even the rest is seasonally dry.

This allows us to say that Australia is the driest continent on the globe.

Deserts of Australia is a complex of desert regions located in Australia.

The deserts of Australia are located in two climatic zones - tropical and subtropical, with most of them occupying the last belt.

Great Sandy Desert

Great Sandy Desert or Western Desert - sandy-saline desert<#"justify">Great Victoria Desert

Great Victoria Desert - sandy saline desert<#"justify">Gibson Desert

Gibson Desert - sandy desert<#"justify">Small Sandy Desert

Small Sandy Desert - sandy desert<#"justify">Simpson desert

Simpson Desert - Sandy Desert<#"justify">The average temperature in January is 28-30 ° С, in July - 12-15 ° С.

In the northern part of the precipitation less than 130 mm, dry channels of cries<#"justify">Tanami

Tanami - rocky-sandy desert<#"justify">Strzeletsky Desert

The Strzelecki Desert is located in the southeast of the mainland in the states of South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. The area of ​​the desert is 1% of the area of ​​Australia. It was discovered by Europeans in 1845 and named after the Polish explorer Pavel Strzelecki. Also in Russian sources it is called as the Streletsky Desert.

Desert Stone Desert

The Stone Desert, which occupies 0.3% of Australia's territory, is located in the state of South Australia and is a cluster of sharp small stones. The local aborigines did not sharpen their arrows, but simply collected stone points here. The desert got its name in honor of Charles Sturt, who in 1844 tried to reach the center of Australia.

Tirari Desert

This desert, located in the state of South Australia and occupying 0.2% of the mainland, has some of the harshest climatic conditions in Australia, due to high temperatures and almost no rain. There are several salt lakes in the Tirari Desert, including Lake Eyre<#"justify">3.Animal world

Long-term isolation of Australia from other continents led to the exceptional originality of the fauna of this continent, and in particular its desert region.

Species endemism is 90%, and the rest of the species are sub-endemic, that is, they spread beyond the desert, but not beyond the continent as a whole. Of the endemic groups, there are: marsupial moles, Australian wheats, scalefoot lizards.

In Australia there are no representatives of the orders of carnivores, ungulates, insectivores, lagomorphs; the order of rodents is represented only by species of the subfamily of mice; the order of sand grouses, the pheasant family, bee-eaters, finches and a number of others are absent from the birds. The fauna of reptiles has also become impoverished: species of the families of lizards, the Lacertidae, gnarled, viper and pit viper snakes did not penetrate here. Due to the absence of the aforementioned and a number of other animals, local, endemic families and genera, as a result of wide adaptive radiation, have mastered free ecological niches and developed a number of convergent forms in the process of evolution.

Among the snakes, species have emerged that are morphologically and ecologically similar to vipers, lizards of the scinn family have successfully replaced the black blazers that are absent here, but especially many convergent forms are observed in marsupial mammals. They ecologically replace insectivores (marsupial shrews), jerboas (marsupial jerboas), large rodents (wombats or marsupial marmots), small predators (marsupial martens) and even, to a large extent, ungulates (wallabies and kangaroos). Small mouse-like rodents widely inhabit all types of deserts (Australian mouse, jerboa mouse and others). In the absence of ungulates, the role of large herbivores is played by marsupials from the kangaroo family: the brush-tailed kangaroos live in the Gibson Desert; giant red kangaroo, etc. Small carnivorous marsupials are similar in appearance and biology to shrews of the Old World (comb-tailed marsupial shrew, thick-tailed marsupial shrew). An underground lifestyle is led by marsupial moles, inhabiting the sandy plains.

Marsupial badgers live in the Simpson Desert. The largest aboriginal predator in the deserts of Australia is the marsupial marten. About 10 thousand years ago, man entered the Australian continent and populated it. Together with the man, the dog also got here - a constant companion of the primitive hunter. Subsequently, feral dogs spread widely in the deserts of the mainland, forming a stable form called the dingo dog. The appearance of such a large predator caused the first significant damage to the native fauna, especially to various marsupials. However, the greatest damage to the local fauna was done after the Europeans appeared in Australia. Either deliberately or accidentally, they brought here a number of wild and domestic animals (the European rabbit - they quickly multiplied, settled in large colonies, destroyed the already scarce vegetation cover). The common fox and house mouse have spread widely throughout the center of Australia. In the central and northern regions, small herds of feral donkeys or single one-humped camels are often found.

Many birds (parrots, zebra finches, emblem finches, pink cockatoos, diamond turtle doves, emu birds) gather near temporary watering places in the hot hours of the day in the desert. Insectivorous birds do not need a watering hole and inhabit desert areas away from any sources of water (Australian wrens, Australian warblers). Since real larks did not penetrate into the deserts of Australia, their ecological niche was occupied by representatives of the Warbler family, adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle and outwardly surprisingly similar to larks. Flat gravelly and stony plains, salt marshes with rare thickets of swans inhabit Australian kamenki. In the thickets of shrub eucalyptus - a large ocellated large-headed or weed chicken lives. Australian black crows can be seen in all desert habitats. Reptiles in the Australian deserts are extremely diverse (families of skink, gecko, agama, asp). Monitor lizards reach the greatest diversity in the deserts of Australia compared to other regions. There are many snakes, insects (darkling beetles, bombardier beetles and others).

.Vegetable world

All of Australia's deserts lie within the Central Australian Region of the Australian Floristic Kingdom. Although in terms of species richness and the level of endemism, the desert flora of Australia is significantly inferior to the flora of the western and northeastern regions of this continent, however, in comparison with other desert regions of the globe, it stands out both in the number of species (more than 2 thousand) and the abundance of endemics. Species endemism reaches 90% here: it has 85 endemic genera, of which 20 are in the family of Compositae, or Asteraceae, 15 are haze and 12 are cruciferous.

Among the endemic genera there are also background desert grasses - Mitchell's herb and Triodia. Families of legumes, myrtle, Proteanaceae and Compositae are represented by a large number of species. The genera eucalyptus, acacia, and proteaceans — grevillea and hakea — demonstrate a significant species diversity. In the very center of the mainland, in the gorge of the desert mountains of McDonnell, narrow-range endemics have survived: the undersized Liviston palm and the macrozamia of the cicadas.

Even some types of orchids - ephemerals that germinate and bloom only in a short period after rains - live in the deserts. Sundews also penetrate here. The inter-ridge depressions and the lower part of the slopes of the ridges are overgrown with clumps of thorny grasses of Triodynia. The upper part of the slopes and the ridges of the dune ridges are almost completely devoid of vegetation, only individual curtiles of the prickly grasses of the zygochloi settle on loose sand. A sparse forest stand of casuarina, individual specimens of eucalyptus, and veinless acacia is formed in inter-barnian depressions and on flat sandy plains. The shrub layer is formed by Proteaceae - these are hakea and several types of grevillea.

On slightly saline places in depressions, saltwort, ragodia and euhilena appear. After the rains, the inter-ridge depressions and the lower parts of the slopes are covered with colorful ephemera and ephemeroids. In the northern regions, on the sands in the Simpson and Bolshoy Peschanaya Desert, the species composition of the background grasses changes somewhat: other species of Triodia, Plectrachne, and Shuttlebeard dominate there; the diversity and species composition of acacias and other shrubs becomes. Gallery forests of several species of large eucalyptus form along the bed of temporary waters. The eastern outskirts of the Great Victoria Desert are occupied by sclerophilous scrub mama scrub thickets. In the south-west of the Great Victoria Desert, stunted eucalyptus trees dominate; the grass layer is formed by kangaroo grass, feather grass species and others.

The arid areas of Australia are very sparsely populated, but the vegetation is used for grazing.

Climate

In the tropical climate zone, which occupies an area between the 20th and 30th parallel in the desert zone, a tropical continental desert climate is formed. The subtropical continental climate is common in southern Australia, adjacent to the Great Australian Bight. These are the outskirts of the Great Victoria Desert. Therefore, in the summer period, from December to February, the average temperatures reach 30 ° С, and sometimes even higher, and in winter (July - August) they decrease on average to 15-18 ° С.In some years, the entire summer period can reach 40 ° С, and in winter at night in the vicinity of the tropics it drops to 0 ° С and below. The amount and territorial distribution of precipitation is determined by the direction and nature of the winds.

The main source of moisture is the "dry" southeast trade winds, since most of the moisture is trapped in the mountain ranges of Eastern Australia. The central and western parts of the country, corresponding to about half of the area, receive an average of about 250-300 mm of precipitation per year. The Simpson Desert receives the smallest amount of precipitation, from 100 to 150 mm per year. The season of precipitation in the northern half of the continent, where the monsoon change of winds prevails, is confined to the summer period, and in its southern part during this period arid conditions prevail. It should be noted that the amount of winter precipitation in the southern half decreases as we move inland, rarely reaching 28 ° S. In turn, summer precipitation in the northern half, having the same tendency, does not spread south of the tropic. Thus, in the zone between the tropic and 28 ° S lat. there is a belt of aridity.

Australia is characterized by excessive variability in average annual precipitation and uneven precipitation throughout the year. Long dry periods and high average annual temperatures prevailing over a large part of the continent cause high annual evaporation rates. In the central part of the continent, they are 2000-2200 mm, decreasing towards its marginal parts. The surface waters of the continent are extremely poor and extremely unevenly distributed over the territory. This is especially true for the desert western and central regions of Australia, which are practically drainless, but account for 50% of the continent's area.

Hydrography

Australian desert fauna precipitation

The peculiarities of runoff in Australia and on islands close to it are well illustrated by the following figures: the runoff volume of the rivers of Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea and New Zealand is 1600 km3, the runoff layer is 184 mm, i.e. slightly more than in Africa. And the flow volume of Australia alone is only 440 km3, and the thickness of the flow layer is only 57 mm, that is, several times less than on all other continents. This is due to the fact that most of the mainland, unlike the islands, receives little rainfall and there are no high mountains and glaciers within it.

The internal flow area includes 60% of Australia's surface. Approximately 10% of the territory has a discharge into the Pacific Ocean, the rest belongs to the Indian Ocean basin. The main watershed of the mainland is the Great Dividing Range, from the slopes of which the largest and deepest rivers flow down. These rivers are fed almost exclusively by rain.

Since the eastern slope of the ridge is short and steep, short, fast, winding rivers flow towards the Coral and Tasman Seas. Receiving more or less uniform nourishment, they are the richest rivers in Australia with a pronounced summer maximum. Crossing ridges, some rivers form rapids and waterfalls. The largest rivers (Fitzroy, Berdekin, Hunter) are several hundred kilometers long. In the lower reaches, some of them are navigable for 100 km or more, and at their estuaries are accessible for ocean-going ships.

The rivers of Northern Australia are also deep, flowing into the Arafur and Timor Seas. The most significant are those that flow down from the northern part of the Great Dividing Range. But the rivers of the north of Australia, due to the sharp difference in the amount of summer and winter precipitation, have a less uniform regime than the rivers of the east. They overflow with water and often overflow during the summer monsoon. In winter, these are weak narrow watercourses, drying up in places in the upper reaches. The largest rivers in the north - Flinders, Victoria and Ord - are navigable in the lower reaches for several tens of kilometers in summer.

There are also permanent streams in the southwest of the mainland. However, during the dry summer season, almost all of them turn into chains of shallow polluted water bodies.

There are no permanent streams in the desert and semi-desert interior of Australia. But there is a network of dry channels, which are the remnants of the formerly developed water network, formed under the conditions of the pluvial epoch. These dry channels are filled with water for a very short time after rains. Such periodic streams are known in Australia as "cries". They are especially abundant in the Central Plains and are directed towards the endless, dry Lake Eyre. The Nullarbor Karst Plain is devoid of even periodic streams, but has an underground water network with a drain towards the Great Australian Bight.

The soil. Landscape

The soil cover of deserts is peculiar. In the northern and central regions, red, red-brown and brown soils are distinguished (characteristic features of these soils are an acid reaction, color with iron oxides). In southern parts of Australia, sierozem-like soils are widespread. In Western Australia, desert soils are found on the outskirts of drainless basins. The Great Sandy Desert and the Great Victoria Desert are characterized by red sandy desert soils. Salt marshes and solonetzes are widely developed in the internal drainage depressions in southwestern Australia and in the Lake Eyre basin.

In terms of landscape, Australian deserts are divided into many different types, among which most often Australian scientists distinguish mountain and foothill deserts, structural plains deserts, rocky deserts, sandy deserts, clay deserts, pline. The most widespread are sandy deserts, occupying about 32% of the continent's area. Along with sandy deserts, stony deserts are also widespread (they occupy about 13% of the area of ​​arid territories. The foothill plains are an alternation of large-stony deserts with dry channels of small rivers. This type of desert is the source of most of the country's desert watercourses and always serves as a habitat for the aborigines. Deserts. structural plains are found in the form of plateaus with a height of no more than 600 m above sea level.After sandy deserts, they are most developed, occupying 23% of the area of ​​arid territories confined mainly to Western Australia.

Population

Australia is the least populated mainland on Earth. About 19 million people live on its territory. The total population of the islands of Oceania is about 10 million people.

The population of Australia and Oceania is divided into two unequal groups of different origins - indigenous and alien. There are few indigenous people on the mainland, and on the islands of Oceania, with the exception of New Zealand, Hawaii and Fiji, they constitute the overwhelming majority.

He started scientific research in the field of anthropology and ethnography of the peoples of Australia and Oceania in the second half of the 19th century. Russian scientist N. N. Miklukho-Maclay.

Like America, Australia could not be inhabited by humans as a result of evolution, but only from the outside. In the composition of its ancient and modern fauna, not only primates are absent, but in general all higher mammals.

Until now, no traces of the Early Paleolithic have been found within the continent. All known finds of human fossil remains have features of Homo sapiens and belong to the Upper Paleolithic.

The indigenous population of Australia has such pronounced anthropological features as: dark brown skin, wavy dark hair, significant beard growth, and a wide nose with a low nose. The faces of the Australians are distinguished by prognathism, as well as a massive brow. These features bring Australians closer to the Veddas of Sri Lanka and some tribes of Southeast Asia. In addition, the following fact deserves attention: the oldest human fossils found in Australia bear a close resemblance to the bone remains found on the island of Java. They are roughly attributed to the time that coincides with the last ice age.

Of great interest is the problem of the path along which the human settlement of Australia and the islands close to it took place. Along the way, the question of the time of the development of the mainland is being resolved.

Undoubtedly, Australia could be populated only from the north, that is, from the side of Southeast Asia.

This is confirmed by both the anthropological characteristics of modern Australians and the paleoanthropological data mentioned above. It is also obvious that a man of the modern type entered Australia, that is, the colonization of the mainland could have occurred not earlier than the second half of the last glacial period.

Australia has existed for a long time (apparently since the end of the Mesozoic) in isolation from all other continents. However, during the Quaternary period, the land between Australia and Southeast Asia was for a time more extensive than it is today. Obviously, there never existed a continuous land "bridge" between the two continents, since, if there were one, the Asian fauna would have to penetrate into Australia along it. In all likelihood, in the Late Quaternary time, in the place of shallow-water basins separating Australia from New Guinea and the southern islands of the Sunda Archipelago (their present depths do not exceed 40 m), there were vast areas of land formed as a result of repeated fluctuations in sea level and land uplifts. The Torres Strait separating Australia from New Guinea may have formed quite recently. The Sunda Islands could also periodically be interconnected by narrow land strips or shoals. Most land animals were unable to overcome such an obstacle. People gradually, by land or overcoming shallow straits, penetrated through the Lesser Sunda Islands to New Guinea and the Australian mainland. At the same time, the settlement of Australia could occur both directly from the Sunda Islands and the island of Timor, and through New Guinea. This process was very long, it probably stretched for whole millennia during the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic. At present, on the basis of archaeological finds on the mainland, it is assumed that man appeared there for the first time about 40 thousand years ago.

The process of spreading people across the mainland was also very slow. The settlement proceeded along the western and eastern coasts, and in the east there were two paths: one - along the coast itself, the second - to the west of the Great Dividing Range. These two branches converged in the central part of the mainland in the area of ​​Lake Eyre. In general, the Australians are distinguished by anthropological unity, which indicates the formation of their main features after their penetration into Australia.

The culture of Australians is very distinctive and primitive. The uniqueness of culture, the uniqueness and closeness of the languages ​​of different tribes to each other testify to the prolonged isolation of Australians from other peoples and to their autonomous historical development up to modern times.

By the beginning of European colonization, about 300 thousand aborigines lived in Australia, divided into 500 tribes. They populated the entire continent fairly evenly, especially its eastern part. Currently, the number of indigenous Australians has decreased to 270 thousand people. They represent approximately 18% of the rural population of Australia and less than 2% of the urban population. A significant proportion of Aboriginal people live on reservations in the northern, central and western regions or work in mines and livestock farms. There are still tribes that continue to lead the former, semi-nomadic way of life and speak the languages ​​that are part of the Australian language family. Interestingly, in some disadvantaged areas, indigenous Australians make up the majority of the population.

The rest of Australia, that is, its most densely populated areas - the eastern third of the mainland and its southwest, is inhabited by Anglo Australians, who make up 80% of the population of the Commonwealth, and by immigrants from other countries of Europe and Asia, although people with white skin are poorly adapted for life in tropical latitudes. By the end of the XX century. Australia came out on top in the world for the incidence of skin cancer. This is attributed to the fact that an "ozone hole" is periodically formed over the mainland, and the white skin of the Caucasoid race is not as protected from ultraviolet radiation as the dark skin of the indigenous population of tropical countries.

In 2003, the population in Australia exceeded 20 million. It is one of the most urbanized countries in the world - more than 90% are urban residents. Despite the lowest population density in comparison with other continents and the presence of vast almost unpopulated and undeveloped territories, as well as the fact that the settlement of Australia by immigrants from Europe began only at the end of the 18th century and for a long time the basis of its economy was agriculture, human impact on nature in Australia has very large and not always positive consequences. This is due to the vulnerability of the very nature of Australia: about half of the mainland is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts, and the surrounding areas periodically suffer from droughts. It is known that arid landscapes are one of the most vulnerable types of natural environment that are easily destroyed by outside interference. Felling of woody vegetation, fires, overgrazing of livestock violate the soil and vegetation cover, contribute to the drying up of water bodies and lead to the complete degradation of landscapes. The ancient and primitive organic world of Australia cannot compete with the more highly organized and viable introduced forms. This organic world, especially the fauna, also cannot resist a man - a hunter, a fisherman, a collector. The population of Australia, mainly living in cities, strives to relax among nature, tourism is developing more and more, not only national, but also international.

.Agriculture

Agricultural map of Australia

Fishing

Cattle

Forestry

Gardening

Pasture

Vegetable growing

Uncultivated land

Livestock

Aquaculture

Agriculture is one of the main sectors of the Australian economy<#"justify">1)Plant growing

) Vegetable growing

) Winemaking

) Livestock

1) Beef

2) Lamb

3) Pork

)Dairy farming

) Fishing

)Wool

)Cotton

Australia produces large quantities of fruits, nuts and vegetables. More than 300 tons of products are oranges<#"justify">10.Assessment of the state of natural systems and characteristics of environmental protection measures in Australia

Based on the foregoing, it is possible to assess the state of natural systems and their capabilities to perform the following functions:

ensuring the conditions for human life;

providing a spatial basis for the development of productive forces;

provision of natural resources;

preservation of the gene pool of the biosphere.

Until recently, it was generally accepted that almost 1/3 of the continent's territory is generally useless from the point of view of economic development. However, over the past three decades, huge deposits of iron ore, bauxite, coal, uranium and many other minerals have been discovered in these desert places, which put Australia in one of the first places in the world in terms of mineral wealth (it, in particular, accounts for about 1/3 of the bauxite reserves of the capitalist world, 1/5 of iron and uranium).

For a century, it was said that Australia "rides on the back of a sheep" (the production and export of wool was the basis of its economic life). Now the country has largely "moved to a trolley with ore", becoming one of the largest producers and exporters of mineral raw materials. The Commonwealth of Australia is rich in various minerals, which, with a few exceptions, almost completely provide the development of the manufacturing industry with mineral raw materials.

The water resources of the continent itself are small; the most developed river network is on the island of Tasmania. The rivers there have a mixed rain and snow supply and are full-flowing throughout the year. They flow down from the mountains and therefore are stormy, rapids and have large reserves of hydropower. The latter is widely used for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. The availability of cheap electricity contributes to the development of energy-intensive industries in Tasmania, such as the smelting of pure electrolyte metals, the production of cellulose, etc.

Agricultural resources in Australia are also quite scarce, but this does not hinder the development of agriculture, albeit in limited areas.

Thus, all industry, manufacturing and most of agriculture is concentrated in small areas - the southeast and (to a lesser extent) the southwest. The technogenic load on natural complexes is very high here, which cannot but affect the ecological situation.

Based on the foregoing, the main directions of environmental protection measures in the territory of the Australian Union can be distinguished:

Protection and rational use of those resources in which the territory under consideration is poor: water resources, forest and soil resources.

Protection and rational use of resources that are actively used - mineral resources, recreational resources.

Protection and rational use of resources specific to the Australian region: protection of biota, development of a network of specially protected natural areas, a network of specially protected natural areas.

Protection of atmospheric air, especially in areas of high technogenic load.

It should be noted that the Environmental Policy in the Australian Union is in charge of a separate state body - the Ministry of Ecology, which gives reason to believe that very serious attention is paid to environmental problems here. The Ministry develops measures of an economic and legal nature for environmental protection and rational use of natural resources in industry, energy, agriculture, pays attention to areas with a high concentration of the population and develops a network of specially protected natural areas. The Department of the Environment interacts with international environmental organizations, other states and other government agencies of the Australian Union.

The Australian Union has established the limits of permissible impact on the components of the natural environment, standards for the use of natural resources, including water. Particular attention is paid to the protection of the continental shelf, water and forest resources. The Australian Union's special flora and fauna are legally protected, for which, among other things, reserves and other protected areas are established. Responsibility for violation of environmental legislation has been established.

The result of the activities of state bodies and public organizations for environmental protection and rationalization of natural resource use can be called the fact that the Australian Union is one of the most environmentally safe countries.

.Environmental issues in Australia

Now more than 65% of the country's territory has been developed. As a result of economic activity, the nature of Australia is under the threat of human change, no less than in many densely populated countries on other continents. Forests are disappearing catastrophically quickly<#"justify">Bibliography

1.Physical geography of continents and oceans: a textbook for students. higher. ped. study. institutions / T.V. Vlasova, M.A. Arshinova, T.A. Kovalev. - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2007.

.Mikhailov N.I. Physical and geographical zoning. M .: Publishing house of Moscow State University, 1985.

.Markov K.K. Introduction to Physical Geography, Moscow: Higher School, 1978.

."Whole World", Encyclopedic Reference. - M., 2005

.Vazumovsky V.M. Physical-geographical and ecological-economic foundations of the territorial organization of society. - SPb., 1997.

.Work program and guidelines for writing abstracts for the course "General ecology and nature management". - SPb, 2001.

.Petrov M.P. Deserts of the Globe L.: Nauka, 1973

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