Doug Bird, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Penn State UniversityThe Department of Anthropology will present "Fire Regimes and Food Webs in Indigenous Australia".
We are currently experiencing the world’s sixth great extinction event. Australia represents the largest contributor to the mammalian component of this catastrophe. Since European settlement, the highly distinctive land mammals of Australia have suffered an extraordinary rate of extinction: over 11% of all endemic terrestrial taxa have been extirpated, and a further 21% are now assessed to be highly threatened. Over the last two centuries, no other continent has witnessed such loss. Here I explore the recent dramatic extinctions of small mammals in the most remote parts of Australia’s Western Desert with analyses of ecological interactions mediated in Aboriginal livelihoods and land use. I investigate historic changes in disturbance regimes and Aboriginal settlement, especially those associated with changing patterns of anthropogenic fire and invasive species, and their role in facilitating fundamental trophic interactions across large parts of arid Australia.
