Wikibooks: Natural and Cultural History of North-East Australia's Wet Tropical Forests

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atherton; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Natural_and_Cultural_History_of_North-East_Australia%27s_Wet_Tropical_Forests

Under provisions of the World Heritage Convention in 1989 the United Nation s World Heritage Committee inscribed 900 000 hectares of north east Australia s wet tropical forests on to the World Heritage list as being heritage of outstanding universal value to humankind. This then is a history of this universally significant heritage. It is a natural and cultural history that reaches back to Gondwana moves through time into the present then onwards 50 years hence into a predicted globally warmer future. =[insert Map of North East Australia s Wet Tropical Forests]= =Chapter Mesozoic Era (290 000 000 65 000 000)= =Permian Period (290 000 000 248 200 000)= =Triassic Period (248 200 000 205 700 000)= =Jurassic Period (205 700 000 142 000 000)= This is a period of globally warm temperatures and at latitudes higher (further towards the poles) than 45 degrees (from the equator) rainfall is high and there are extensive swamps (evidenced in the present by large coal deposits) = 205 700 000 = What is presently called Australia is at this time part of a single continent (Gondwana) comprised of an amalgamation of present Australia Africa South America Madagascar India and Antarctica. ADAM Paul (1994) Australian Rainforests . Oxford University Press Melbourne. Page 138 = 175 000 000 = At the location of present day northern New South Wales (Talbragar Fish Beds) there is a forested landscape dominated by Agathis (ie Kauri ) together with podocarps (ie southern conifers) and in the understory are cycads ferns and tree ferns. Around the lake is a zone of seed ferns. Present day relict gymnosperm Agathis (Kauri) forests on the Atherton Tablelands represent a modern assemblage of plants with the same basic composition as the Jurassic (Gondwana) forests covering present day northern New South Wales (ie Podocarps [southern conifers] growing among the Kauri pines [ Agathis robusta ] with tree like cycads [ Lepidozamia hopei ] in the understory. WHITE M.E (1986) The greening of Gondwana . Reed. Sydney. = 160 000 000 = West Gondwana ...