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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/theluckyfrog on 2024-04-20 17:39:56.
Western Australia’s eucalypt forests fade to brown as century-old giant jarrahs die in heat and drought
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A couple of weeks ago, Joe Fontaine stood in the middle of one of Western Australia’s eucalypt forests on another hot and dry day that was stripped of the usually raucous backing-track of bird calls.
Many of these ecosystems are dominated by eucalypt trees such as jarrah and marri, and coastal shrublands spread with banksias, the likes of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
Dr Katinka Ruthrof, a senior research scientist in the state government’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, says the current die-off has similar characteristics to the 2011 event.
Dr Mark Harvey, curator of spiders, millipedes and centipedes at the Western Australian Museum, says the south-west has hundreds of invertebrate species found nowhere else.
Fontaine’s Murdoch University colleague, atmospheric scientist Dr Kerryn Hawke, says the region’s trees and plants are used to a Mediterranean-style climate with cold fronts from the ocean to the south bringing good rainfall in the winter.
About 430km south-east of Perth is Walpole, where David Edmonds has a beef and orchid farm while volunteering with the Walpole-Nornalup National Parks Association.
The original article contains 999 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!