The fate of rainfall in a mallee and heath vegetated catchment in southern Western Australia

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1986

Journal Title

Australian Journal of Ecology

Keywords

Catchment, Western Australia, Mallee, Eucalyptus, Soil Profiles

Disciplines

Soil Science

Abstract

This article focuses on a study related to the fate of rainfall in a mallee and heath vegetated catchment in Southern Western Australia. Mallee, a shrub-eucalypt association, once covered large areas of the now developed agricultural land in Southern Western Australia. Replacement of the mallee with annual crops and pastures has resulted in significant salinisation of soil in Western Australia. Removal of the mallee vegetation would obviously affect the redistribution of rainfall and, although the components that are affected are a small proportion of the rainfall, the time integrated effect can be very significant. Under mallee, water penetration deep into the soil profile is via preferred pathways.

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