Recent recreational ecology research in Australia

Abstract

Why do we need recreation ecology research in different countries? Recreational impacts differ considerably between activities and between ecosystems, and Liddle (1997), Sun and Walsh (1998) and Buckley (2004) used these criteria to structure their reviews of research literature. But do findings from one country apply to comparable ecosystems elsewhere? Different continents and geographical regions have different flora and fauna, even if they have structurally similar vegetation types. Considerable effort has been devoted to identifying the differences as well as the similarities: e.g., for coral reefs (Dubinsky 1990), coastal heaths (van der Maarel 1997), or tropical rainforests (Primack & Corlett 2004). Except at the crudest level such as wholescale vegetation clearance, recreational impacts are different in different continents. The broad types are similar, but the specific mechanisms, the quantitative relationships, and the shape of stress-response curves may depend on the terrain, climate, evolutionary history of plant and animal species and communities.