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Topic Grassland ecosystems
Question How do grasslands of the Western Volcanic Plains differ from other Victorian, Australian and overseas grasslands?
Expert Dr John Morgan
Dr John Morgan is a research scientist in the Department of Botany at La Trobe University, Bundoora. John has worked for many years in the grassy ecosystems of southern Australia, concentrating on understanding the long-term changes that occur in species composition in the context of land-use change, ecological management and plant invasions, relating his findings to conservation and biodiversity.
In many respects they’re very similar – but one chief difference is the dominance by one species, Kangaroo Grass. Many lowland grasslands elsewhere in Australia and other places of the world tend to be composed of several species of grasses. So why Kangaroo Grass becomes mono-dominant has something to do with evolutionary processes and fire. Kangaroo Grass is a pyro-gladiator – fire re-enforces its dominance in a way that it does with few other species.
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