Introduction to Grasses and Grasslands

Abstract

A broad perspective of the major constituent vegetation (‘grasses’), the areas they occupy (‘grasslands’), and the problems they face from historical and contemporary changes and losses helps to appreciate the scope, variety and urgency of their conservation needs, wider ecological importance, and benefits to humanity. Four major categories of ‘why grasslands matter’ were recognised by White et al. (2000) (Table 1.1). The first two of these, and the interactions between them are the major focus here. This brief entrée to the massive literature on grassland variety places the Australian needs into a wider global context, with the broad parameters of grassland management treated in several later chapters. The major consequences of human interventions into grassland include the conversion of vast areas of previously natural grasslands for other uses, and their reduction to small fragments (‘remnants’) of their former extent. Those, commonly very small, areas are now refuges for many previously more widespread biota and – although often overlooked – are the last strongholds for many localised insects and other species.