ABSTRACT
Much of the inland tropical north of Australia is covered by sparsely wooded savanna (see Chapter 1, Figure 1.3), with annual monsoonal rainfall averaging from 200 mm in the southern region of central Australia to 800 mm and above closer to the northern coastal region (see Chapter 1, Figure 1.1). The region is generally characterised by low productivity levels with inherently large and unpredictable intra- and inter-annual variation of rainfall (D’Odorico & Bhattachan, 2012). The primary drivers of the vegetation patterns of the different regions are water availability and soil nutrients, with fire and grazing (by livestock and native herbivores) as secondary drivers (Kutt & Woinarski, 2007).
