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Shamim Shorif Susom is a pilot and photographer from Bangladesh. As he travels he captures unique aerial views of his country, which he shares on his website

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We really love having you listen to RN but we need to let you know that we’ll be closing our subject podcasts (don’t worry—we aren’t cancelling any shows). To keep hearing stories and interviews from RN, search for your favourite shows in the ABC Radio App or subscribe in your preferred podcasting app.

Airedale, West Yorkshire By early September mating instincts will give way to a territorial urge and this stretch of river won’t be big enough for both birds

They’re still together, but it won’t last. The sycamore keys have started to twirl to earth and a parting of ways is on the cards. Kingfisher pairs seldom outlast the summer; by early September mating instincts will have given way to the territorial urge, and that’ll mean that this stretch of the river won’t be big enough for the both of them.

It’s warm, a bit muggy, and the air is thick with the musty stink of rosebay willowherb. Mallard drakes in their dowdy moult or “eclipse” plumage lounge in sulky gangs on the gravel spit, exiled dukes stripped of their finery.

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Many of Australia's nearest neighbours in the Pacific Islands have far more ambitious renewable energy targets.

Our EcoCheck series takes the pulse of some of Australia’s most important ecosystems to find out if they’re in good health or on the wane.

Australia’s Top End, Kimberley and Cape York Peninsula evoke images of vast, awe-inspiring and ancient landscapes. Whether on the hunt for a prized barramundi, admiring some of the oldest rock art in the world, or pursuing a spectacular palm cockatoo along a pristine river, hundreds of thousands of people flock to this region each year. But how are our vast northern landscapes faring environmentally, and what challenges are on the horizon?

Above 17° south, bounded by a rough line from Cairns, Queensland, to Derby, Western Australia, are the high-rainfall (more than 1,000mm a year) tropical savannas. These are the largest and most intact ecosystem of their kind on Earth. With the exception of some “smaller” pockets of rainforest (such as Queensland’s Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range) National Park), the vegetation of the region is dominated by mixed Eucalyptus forest and woodland with a grassy understorey.

Within the fire-prone Great Northern Savannas exist fire-sensitive communities such as these Allosyncapria ternata rainforests along the edge of the Arnhem Plateau in Kakadu National Park. Brett Murphy

There is a distinct monsoonal pattern of rainfall. Almost all of it falls during the wet season (December-March), followed by an extended dry (April-November). Wet-season rains drive abundant grass growth, which subsequently dries and fuels regular bushfires – making these landscapes among the most fire-prone on Earth. The dominant land tenures of the region are Indigenous, cattle grazing and conservation.

Cattle grazing is widespread in the Great Northern Savannas. Mark Ziembicki

These savannas are home to a vast array of plant and animal species. The Kimberley supports at least 2,000 native plant species, while the Cape York Peninsula has some 3,000. More than 400 bird and 100 mammal species call the region home, along with invertebrates such as moths, butterflies, ants and termites, and spiders. Many of the latter are still undescribed and poorly studied.

Many species, such as the scaly-tailed possum, are endemic to the region, meaning they are found nowhere else.

A large male antilopine wallaroo, endemic to tropical Australia. Euan Ritchie

The general lack of extensive habitat loss and modification, as compared to the broad-scale land clearing in southern Australia since European arrival, can give a false impression that the tropical savannas and their species are in good health. But research suggests otherwise, and considerable threats exist.

Fire-promoting weeds such as gamba grass, widely sown until very recently as fodder for cattle, are transforming habitats from diverse woodlands to burnt-out, low-diversity grasslands. Indeed, the fires themselves, which are considered too frequent and too late in the dry season at some locations, are now thought to be a primary driver of species loss.

Notable examples of wildlife in trouble include declines of many seed-eating birds, such as the spectacular Gouldian finch, and the catastrophic decline of native mammal species, most prominently in Australia’s largest national park, Kakadu.

Bauxite mining threatens the habitat of vulnerable Cape York palm cockatoos. Mark Ziembicki

Added pressures include bauxite mining, forestry and cattle grazing. The latter activity exerts strong pressures on the characteristically leached, nutrient-poor, tropical soils. Most recently, changes to Queensland’s land-clearing laws have led to virgin savanna woodland being cleared.

It is likely some threats may also combine to make matters worse for certain species. For instance, frequent fires, intensive cattle grazing and the overabundance of introduced species such as feral donkeys and horses all combine to remove vegetation cover. This, together with the presence of feral cats, makes some native animals more vulnerable to predation.

New threats

This globally significant ecosystem, already under threat, is facing new challenges too. Proposals to use the region as a food bowl for Asia are associated with calls for the damming of waterways and land clearing for agriculture.

This is against a backdrop of climate change, which among other effects may bring less predictable wet seasons, more frequent and intense storms (cyclones) and fires, and hotter, longer dry seasons. Such changes are not only likely to harm some species, but could also make those much-touted agricultural goals far more difficult to achieve.

Great opportunities exist in northern Australia, but we need to avoid the mistakes of the past. Mark Ziembicki

Great opportunities do exist in northern Australia, including carbon farming and expanded tourism enterprises. In some cases this might require difficult transitions, as already seen in parts of Cape York Peninsula, where often economically unviable cattle stations have become joint Indigenous and conservation-managed lands.

A key priority for the Great Northern Savannas should be to maintain people on country. It’s often thought that the solution to reducing environmental impacts is removing people from landscapes, but as people disappear so too does their stewardship and ability to manage and care for the land.

Importantly, and finally, we must also learn the historical lessons from southern Australia if we are to avoid making similar mistakes all over again, jeopardising the unique and precious values of the north.

Are you a researcher who studies an iconic Australian ecosystem and would like to give it an EcoCheck? Get in touch.

Euan Ritchie receives funding from Pozible, the Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, and the Australian Research Council. Euan Ritchie is affiliated with the Ecological Society of Australia and the Australian Mammal Society.

Brett Murphy receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Programme and the Hermon Slade Foundation.

Australian company proposes 100MW solar farm with single axis tracking technology, going into "merchant market" with no additional grants.

The fourth ERF auction has recently been announced. This matters immensely for the waste and local government sectors.

The state’s new climate goals are far more ambitious than those of the US overall, and they’re in line with ambitions in Europe.

JinkoSolar today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016.

The Governor of New York State says Americans will be reading by candlelight unless nuclear is subsidised. But how about a look at the data.

Despite the government’s sudden conversion to gas as Australia’s panacea to climate change, the only real solution is 100% renewable energy

There has been a lot of hot air recently about the role of gas in Australia’s future energy generation. At last week’s COAG meeting, the overwhelming takeaway message from our newly minted energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, was that gas was good, not to mention vital for our future energy solution.

For Frydenberg, gas is the key plank of Australia’s solution to climate change: the low-carbon panacea that will help us meet our obligations under the Paris agreement. Indeed, he has so much faith in gas that he is applying pressure on Victoria to overturn its current moratorium on onshore drilling and give the industry a foothold in the Australian state with the highest population growth rate.

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Coal-fired cars? Climate campaigner John Hewson promotes discarded technology that his business partners say could turn coal into a "universal fuel" and ensure long-term survival of coal industry – in Latrobe Valley and elsewhere. Environmental campaigners are horrified.

According to BNEF, used electric vehicle batteries will amount to 29 GWh by 2025.

Queensland woman says she had to fight the animal after finding it had her daughter pinned to the ground

A Queensland mother has wrestled and kicked a kangaroo to save her two-year-old daughter at their Hervey Bay home.

Argie Abejaron told the Fraser Coast Chronicle she had heard her six-year-old son scream on Tuesday and had run outside to see the kangaroo had pinned her little girl, Mileah, to the ground and was attacking her.

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A kindly offer of a lift — or something much darker?

MS Explorer was the first cruise ship to hit an iceberg since the Titanic.

The small mammal – ‘one of the cutest animals in America’ – is struggling to survive as summers get hotter and drier

Populations of a rabbit-like animal known as the American pika are vanishing in many mountainous areas of the west as climate change alters its habitat, according to findings released by the US Geological Survey.

The range for the mountain-dwelling herbivore is shrinking in southern Utah, north-eastern California and in the Great Basin that covers most of Nevada and parts of Utah, Oregon, Idaho and California, the federal agency concluded after studying the mammal from 2012-2015.

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LOVE IN A TORRENT: Some frogs have evolved ultrasonic mating calls so they can be heard above the background rumble of the fast-flowing streams they depend on, say researchers.

Application on ecological sustainability – call for public comments open from 26 August 2016 – 29 September 2016

Proposed rule change that could fast-track deployment of battery storage in Australia put on hold, a week after regulator was criticised by energy ministers for slow decisions.