Campion Library: Geography Research Guides: Biomes

WORLD BIOMES

The World's Biomes
Biomes and Ecosystems
Biomes of the World
Bioregion overviews
This website covers 17 bioregions in NSW. Click on the map, or the list beside it, to get a bioregion overview covering:

physical attributes of the landscape
biodiversity
conservation values
human links to the environment.
Greater Australian Interior Desert & Shrublands bioregion
The Five Major Biomes

SEARCH STRATEGY TIPS

Before starting your research, it is good practice to think about and create a list of keywords that you can use to search for information on your topic. Google is very intuitive however databases usually require a search string. Here are a few tips to help you.

Words are sometimes spelled differently, for example, colonization is sometimes written as colonisation.
Many search engines and databases use Boolean logic to construct a search term. The asterisk is known as a wild card. The use of AND, OR and NOT can also be helpful.
Sometimes it is useful to use other words that mean similar or the same thing (synonyms)
Use quotation marks when you are searching for a phrase.
Using keywords that relate to the topic will focus the search

Suggestions for this topic:

Simpson Desert climate flora fauna biodiversity

Simpson desert human impact

Simpson desert threats species ecosystems environment

"Simpson Desert" AND Climate AND (rainfall OR average temperatures OR weather patterns OR seasons)

“Simpson Desert” AND “primary productivity”

GEOGRAPHY ONLINE RESOURCES

One Earth presents a novel biogeographical framework defined by 185 unique bioregions, which helps reveal the underlying ecological fabric of life that surrounds us.

SPECIFIC BIOMES

FLORA & FAUNA

The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is the most comprehensive dataset on Australian biodiversity. It maps map the distribution of flora and fauna across Australia. You can search by state or regions and find all species that grow in that area.

Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan. You can search for the ecosystem roles, food habits and predation of most species

DIGITAL RESOURCES

The following PREMIUM DIGITAL RESOURCES may be useful for research in this subject . However they are password protected and when you click on any of the icons below you will be re-directed to a page that requires authentication.

Gale ebooks are a good starting point just type in your biome and you will find a comprehensive list of resources. Check the publication date for the most up to date resources.

LIBRARY CATALOGUE

DEWEY DECIMAL

The Campion Library has a comprehensive collection of books on biomes and animals that can be found using Oliver or you can shelf browse in different sections of the Non-fiction Collection.

363.7	Environmental Problems
577	Ecology
577.3	Forest ecology
577.4	Grassland ecology
577.54	Deserts
577.68	Wetlands
577.7	Marine Ecology
590	Animals
591.3	Animal Ecology

910	Geography and travel
919.4	Geography and travel - Australia

REFERENCING

The Referencing Libguide has resources on how to cite/reference sources in research.

The Online Reference Generator allows you to create citations and bibliographies using the Harvard Referencing Style for a comprehensive list of resources.

MyBib is a free online service that allows users to generate citations and bibliographies. You can paste in a DOI, ISBN or URL and have the fields populate automatically. However it does not always provide the correct reference so you must check that all possible parts of the reference have been included.