The Great Victoria Desert

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.

Ernest Giles (1835-1897)

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