Oceania

1
Oceania

• Including Australia, New Zealand,and Antarctica

2
Lands of the Pacific Antarctica

• Oceania
• A group of islands in the Pacific Ocean
• More than 20,000
• Includes Australia New Zealand
• Australia a continent, not an island

3
(No Transcript)
4
Oceanias Many Islands

• Actual number of islands unknown
• Constantly changing
• Erosion causes some to vanish
• Other forces create new ones
• Two categories
• High Islands
• Created by volcanoes
• Low Islands
• Made of coral reefs

5
New Zealand

• Two main islands
• North Island
• Hilly ranges
• Fertile farmlandand forests
• South Island
• Southern Alps
• 300-mile mountainrange
• Runs down islands center

6
New Zealand

• Moderate marine west coast climate
• Ocean breezes cool land in summer, warm it in
  winter
• Year-round rainfall amount varies
• Mountains on South Island cause rain shadow
  effect rain falls on western slopes eastern
  side is drier
• Temperatures cooler inland
• High elevations cause temperature drop

7
New Zealand
A sunny beachon North Island
Snow-capped mountainson South Island
8
Australia

• The smallest continent on earth
• Also the flattest
• Great Dividing Range a chain of highlands
  running parallel to east coast
• Western Australia a vast expanse of plains
  plateaus
• Very few rivers
• Great Barrier Reef
• 1,250 mile chain of coral reefs islands

9
(No Transcript)
10
Great Barrier Reef
11
Great Barrier Reef- From Space
12
Australia

• Varied Climates
• East coast divided into two zones
• Humid subtropical in the north
• Hot summers, mild winters, heavy rainfall
• Marine west coast in the south
• One-third of continent is desert
• Center of continent gets lt10 inches/year
• Semiarid climate circles the desert
• Crops grown only by using irrigation
• Mediterranean along southern coast

13
Australia

• Why so dry?
• Location in tropics subtropics
• Rain evaporates quickly in hot temperatures
• Great Dividing Range
• Moist winds from ocean shed rain along east
  coast, never get to the interior
• The Outback
• Name given to Australia's dry interior

14
Icy Antarctica

• The 5th largest continent
• Generally circular in shape
• Centered on South Pole
• Varied landscape lies beneath a thick ice sheet
• Transantarctic Mountains divide continent
• East a plateau surrounded by mountains
• West a group of islands linked by ice

15
Icy Antarctica
16
The White Desert

• Antarctica earths coldest, driest continent
• Icecap climate
• Winter temperatures fall to 70F below zero or
  colder
• Receives very little precipitation
• Often called a polar desert
• Antarcticas ice sheet worlds largest supply
  of freshwater

17
(No Transcript)
18
Economic Products

• Australia
• A major producer of
• Gold, diamonds, opals, copper, iron ore
• Worlds largest exporter of wool

19
Economic Products

• New Zealand
• Produces paper products
• Major exporter of
• butter, cheese, meat, and wool
• Worlds largest producer of kiwi fruit

20
Economic Products

• Oceania
• Most people work at subsistence activities
• Families produce only the food, clothing, shelter
  they need for themselves
• Low islands lack fertile soil for abundant
  agriculture
• High islands produce bananas, sugar, coffee,
  copra (dried coconut meat)

21
Economic Products

• Oceania
• Tourism has become important thanks to jet travel
• A mixed blessing
• Tourists spendmoney
• Hotels, stores, roads threatenenvironment
  traditional waysof life

22
Early Inhabitants

• Australia
• People migrated from Asia at least 40,000 years
  ago
• Aborigines
• Latin ab origine from the beginning
• Some 500 groups 200 different languages when
  Europeans arrived

23
Early Inhabitants

• New Zealand
• First settled by the Maori
• Migrated from Polynesia more than 1,000 years
  ago
• Hunters, fishers, farmers
• Today, both Aborigines and Maori are minorities
  in the lands they once dominated

24
European Settlement

• Britain colonized Australia as a penal colony a
  place to send prisoners in 1788
• Colonists attracted to New Zealand for its
  fertile soil fishing
• Discovery of gold in Australia in 1800s brought
  thousands of immigrants

25
European Settlement

• Christian missionaries opened much of Oceania to
  European settlement
• Antarctica remained largely unexplored because of
  its cold climate
• South Pole first reached in 1911

26
European Settlement

• British introduced sheep, cattle, horses
• Raising livestock became profitable business for
  many colonists
• Many native people killed in conflicts
• Greater numbers died from diseases brought by
  Europeans

27
Rabbit Invasion

• Introduction of rabbits to Australia a disaster
• Many Europeans raise or hunt rabbits for food
• 1859, Thomas Austin released 24 into Australia
  so he could hunt them
• Rabbits had few natural enemies like foxes
  among Australias wildlife
• By 1900, Australia had more than a billion rabbits

28
Rabbit Invasion

• Problem
• Australias climate producessparse vegetation
• Rabbits graze close to the ground so they kill
  or weaken the plants
• Rabbits wiped out plants crops
• Ruined pastures where sheep graze
• Competed against native animals for food

29
Rabbit Invasion

• Solutions
• Australians imported foxes
• But foxes also endanger native wildlife
• Officials built a 2,000-mile fence to keep
  rabbits from spreading
• Government infected rabbits with a deadly disease
  in 1950s
• 90 died but rabbits became immune kept
  multiplying
• Population boomed to 300 million by 1990s

30
Rabbit Invasion

• New Solutions
• Poison
• New diseases
• Better fences
• Destroying burrows where rabbits live

31
Two Native Burrowing Animals

• The Bilby
• Rabbit-earedBandicoot

• Bettong
• Rat Kangaroo