The Becher Wetlands - A Ramsar Site: Evolution of Wetland Habitats and Vegetation Associations on a Holocene Coastal Plain, South-Western Australia (Wetlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management, 1)

The author is to be congratulated on her efforts and perseverance in undertaking this research, and Springer for making the material available in this book format. I commend the information to all who live close to or around the Becher Point wetlands and the whole study as a model for wetland science globally. Peter Bridgewater Secretary General Ramsar Convention, Gland, Switzerland December 2005. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In a piece of work with wide ranging subject matter and extensive duration, such as this, there are many people to acknowledge and to thank for their contribution and perseverance. Many people followed through to completion tasks which incorporated several stages and several years. They expressed a real commitment to the project and a love for the wetlands in the area. It has been uplifting to work in their company. Together, we have amassed a repertoire of stories that are funny, disappointing, bizarre, dangerous and inspirational. I wish to begin by thanking the many peoplewho assisted with fieldwork because this is where the story really started. They are: Ben Asper, Derek Bazen, Theo Bazen, Anthony Bougher, Gary Dietrich, Martine Desbureaux, Toby Nisbet, Kaylene Parker, Julie Pech, Karen Semeniuk, Trudi Semeniuk, Tony Smith, and Joy Unno. Regional surveying of sites was carried out by Ric Stephenson. The people who assisted in preparing samples for laboratory analyses were Penny Clifford, Toby Nisbet, and Joy Unno. The people responsible for final electronic drafting of the diagrams were Craig Miskell, Vic Semeniuk and Glynn Kernick.

This book is a landmark study of the Holocene evolution and functioning of a suite of seasonal wetland basins in the temperate coastal zone of Western Australia. In 2001, a series of discrete small scale wetlands on the Becher cuspate foreland in Western Australia, were nominated as a Ramsar site because of their scientific values. These values pertained to their setting, their method of formation and deepening, their history of infilling, their complex hydrological mechanisms, and their dynamic hydrochemical and vegetation responses. The wetlands were the subjects of intense curiosity, observation, measurement, and experiment, for over 10 years. The results of this interest and passion are presented here in order to demonstrate the considerable importance of what lay beneath the ordinary surface.

Amongst the new ideas presented in the book are the importance of stratigraphy in understanding wetland development, the significance of physiographic setting in determining wetland development, and the unravelling of several different evolutionary pathways in wetlands of the same basic origin.

The book would be of interest to a great variety of readers such as university researchers/students in the fields of geography, ecology, environmental science/engineering, botany and biology, and also would be of benefit to water/soil resource managers, land management planners, conservation agencies and environmental management/protection agencies.