Regeneration in tropical eucalypt forest on Melville Island

TL;DRAbstract

The eucalypt species of the evergreen savanna forest in monsoonal Australia have a population structure characterized by mature trees, an abundance of short stems in the ground layer and low densities of saplings. Other common trees of these forests, such as the broadleaved species, are almost exclusively represented by these short woody sprouts. The distinctive structure of the eucalypt forests begs the question as to how these forests are perpetuated. This study seeks to examine tree regeneration in the eucalypt forests of Melville Island in the wet-dry tropics of Australia. The first part of the thesis adresses the influence of the physical environment on regeneration by examining edpahic influences on vegetation structure, growth rates and fire response. The second part of the thesis concentrates on the evergreen eucalypts forests and examines possible causes for the supression of woody sprouts. An attempt was made to define the soil moisture conditions across the range of savanna

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