The Great Victoria Desert is located in Southwest Australia. It is 425,500 square kilometers which is about the size of California.
The GVD is one of the largest deserts in the world!
The Great Victoria Desert experiences a hot summer, about 90-104°F, and a mild winter, about 64-73°F. Being that it is a desert, there is only 200-250 mm of rainfall per year.
Natural fire is common to this ecosystem, made of sandhills, grassland plains, salt lakes, and desert pebbles. For the most part, the GVD is not suitable for agriculture.
Plants must be heavily adapted to survive in the Great Victoria Desert, as the region is very dry and conditions are harsh. Eucalyptus trees, shrubs, and spinifex grasses are among the survivors. Animal life is also limited to lizards and smaller mammals, like rabbits, goats, and dingos. Large mammals and birds are rare in the GVD.
History
Presence of Aboriginal people can be traced back to more
than 20,000 years ago. The European explorer Ernest Giles named the region
after the English Queen, in 1875. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
a series of expedition occurred. Len Beadell, an Australian army surveyor built
roads in the 1960s, to increase the availability through the area. The
introduction, by Europeans, of non-native species, during imperial era altered
the natural succession of the region. Much of the desert is still undisturbed
and includes protected areas such as Mamungari Conservation Park.
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| Ernest Giles (1835-1897) |
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Len Beadell (1923-1995)Human Impact
Due
to its status as a desert region with extreme temperatures, the conservation
status of the Great Victoria Desert is relatively good, as far as development
goes. It is largely unsettled, partially because of the lack of transit routes
through the area and the infertility of the land. The vast majority of the
settlement that has taken place throughout the Great Victoria Desert is
aboriginal, particularly the Kogara, Mirning, and Pitjantjatjara tribes. The
native Australians have little negative impact on the environment, which can be
attributed to both their glorification of nature and the absence of industrial
technology in their lifestyle.
Modern
advancements have affected the region, through both mining and nuclear weapon
testing. Mining in the eastern part of the Great Victoria Desert has caused
some development on the untouched land. The Woomera Prohibited Area is a
weapon-testing area the size of England, which has destroyed habitats for the
natural species in the area. In the 1950s, the British tested nine atomic bombs
in the Great Victoria Desert, which released toxic materials (including
plutonium, uranium and beryllium) into the ecosystem, harming Aboriginal
tribes. It is still not recommended to visit the areas in which the tests were
performed.
Human
introduction of non-native species also degrades the natural environment. For
example, the camel was introduced to Australia from India between 1840 and 1970
as a transportation device. By the 1930s, there were 20,000 trained camels that
were not longer needed because of new transportation technology. They were
released into the bush, and their population grew exponentially as they spread
throughout Australia. The camels graze on any plant life that is available,
which damages trees and shrubs and prevent natural succession. Camels have
forced several plant species into extinction. Camels strip water-rich areas during
droughts, despite their importance to surrounding plant and animal species,
including the Aboriginal people. Lastly, camels are capable of holding
infections and diseases that may spread to the Australian people. Other
invasive species include the feral goat, fox, rabbit, wild dog, feral cat,
camel, donkey, and horse.
Additionally,
human actions can negatively impact the environment indirectly. In this case,
global warming is changing the historically recorded conditions of the desert.
For example, temperatures have risen while average rainfall has decreased since
the turn of the century. According to the United Nations Environment Program,
the Great Victoria Desert’s average temperature has increased by .8°C per
decade since 1976. Temperatures and precipitation levels affect droughts and
furthermore the presence of water sources, which species depend on. Climate
change also causes shifts in vegetation and vegetation isolation, which
decreases the biome’s ability to maintain high levels of biodiversity.
Future Prospects
According to the United
Nations Environment Programme, due to climate change, the Great Victoria
Desert’s average temperature is projected to increase by 2-3°C with a decrease
of between 5 and 10% of annual rainfall. Further data suggests that similar
consequences will occur throughout the globe. With less rainfall and higher
temperatures, the livelihood of the Great Victoria Desert will turn into a more
competitive game of survival of the fittest, possibly leading to the extinction
of certain species. Increasing tourism through the Great Victoria Desert will
continue to degrade the ecosystem. Nonetheless, the Great Victoria Desert is
one of the less threatened ecosystems in comparison to those with extensive
human interaction. The following table from the UNEP describes the historic and projected changes in temperature and rainfall.
 Improvements on Human Impact
The greatest improvements
that humans could make for the Great Victoria Desert would be attempts to
eradicate climate change. With the climate changing at the rate that it is, few
ecosystems are safe. In addition, those with power in Australia should
carefully avoid introducing any more exotic species to the region, as rabbits
have historically been a huge problem for Australia, and recently both black
striped mussels and red fire ants have penetrated Australian ecosystems. Exotic
weeds have also invaded Australian desert, strangling native species. The
reduction of ballast water from ships would stop more non-native species from
entering the Great Victoria Desert and setting off the biological balance.
Reference List
www.eoearth.org
www.brittanica.com
www.environment.gov
www.atlas.sa.gov.au
www.garnautreview.org
www.environment.gov.au
wwf.panda.org
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