The intertidal ecology of Tasmania

This thesis represents the results of five years' work on various aspects of the intertidal ecology of Tasmania. Most of the study of the features of our intertidal region has been carried out in South Tasmania but visits have been made to the East, West and North Coasts of the island. The study is not yet complete as a work of this nature will take many years. It is considered, however, that the present stage of the investigation as presented in this thesis, is sufficiently advanced to make it worth recording. For convenience in presentation, the thesis has been divided into a series of parts which are all inter-related. There is a certain inevitable overlap of the material contained in the various parts but the discussions at the end of the parts is brief to avoid repetition in Parts 11, 12 and 15. The major ecological problem in Tasmania is taxonomic. This is not discussed in the text but a few words here may suffice to illustrate the difficulties. There are only three check lists of invertebrate animals available to workers in Tasmania. One of these deals with the Molluscs (MEW, 1921 and 1923) and the other two have been prepared as supplements to this investigation. The two groups listed are the Porifera and the Crustacea, and it has been found necessary to revise a list of the algae. Besides the lack of complete lists, much of the fauna has never been described and until such time as experts have worked on the various groups, it is impossible to proceed to community and population studies. For this reason the work has been largely confined to the major features of various ecological habitats rather than to detailed population studies. Some of this work has been published and other parts are in press. The published material has appeared in Papers of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1949, 1950 and 1951. Certain other features have been mentioned in lectures delivered before the Royal Society of Tasmania (5th July, 1949), the Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club (15th March, 1951) and the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (25th May, 1951).