Life in the Central Deserts of Australia

Australia’s central deserts support rich assemblages of animals and plants: add water, and the seemingly barren landscapes transform and pulsate with colour and activity. In this lecture, Professor Dickman will take us through the extraordinary ‘boom’ and ‘bust’ cycles that characterise inland Australia and examine how life persists during good times and bad. You will see the amazing adaptations that frogs and desert mice use to cope with the extreme conditions, how floods, wildfires and invasive species affect the native small mammals, and how so many species seem to appear and disappear at different times and places over the desert landscape. With the spectre of climate change looming, life in Australia’s central deserts may provide a glimpse of what the continent’s coastal fringes can expect in future.

Date: Thursday August 12 Time: 5:45pm – 6:45pm Location: Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney http://maps.google.com.au/maps/place?cid=6654318546419014764&q=eastern+ avenue+auditorium&hl=en&cd=1&> Cost: FREE Contact: Sydney Science Forum Phone: 02 9351 3021 Email: science.forum@sydney.edu.au More info: http://sydney.edu.au/science/outreach/forum/lecture7.shtml

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