Australian Deserts

Three-quarters of the Australian continent is desert, and Steve Morton has spent a working life getting to know it at first hand. Here he sets out how the Outback actually functions as a living system, beginning with two hard facts: rain that arrives unpredictably, and soils poor in nutrients. From those conditions, he shows, almost everything else follows.

Morton traces how plants and animals became desert dwellers over evolutionary time, how plants use erratic rainfall to keep their populations going, and which animals dominate the arid zone and why they thrive where others would fail. Mike Gillam's photographs run throughout, giving the red country its full scale and colour. It is clear, accessible science for naturalists, travellers and anyone curious about how life holds on in the heart of Australia.