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Yapunyah Waterhole lies in the Mulga Lands bioregion of western Queensland. The waterhole is about two kilometres long and covers approximately 22 hectares when full. It is defined as a permanent waterhole in a region where permanent waterholes are extremely rare and therefore provide important refuges for aquatic plants and animals. These rare waterholes were also vital for Aboriginal people and provided both spiritual and physical nourishment.〔Silcock, Jenny (2009), ''Identification of Permanent Refuge Waterbodies in the Cooper Creek & Georgina-Diamantina River Catchments for Queensland and South Australia'', Final Report to South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Board.〕 The waterhole is on a cattle-grazing property where efforts are being made to preserve the biodiversity and associated cultural heritage. The property owners are working with the local natural resource management group, Desert Channels Queensland.〔Desert Channels Queensland Incorporated - Caring for the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin.〕 The Yapunyah Waterhole is a permanent waterhole in the Cooper Creek catchment and the Lake Eyre Basin. It lies in the Grey Range〔(Grey Range – Queensland by Degrees ). Royal Geographical Society of Queensland. Retrieved 4 March 2013.〕 between Adavale and Yaraka in South West Queensland.〔(Our landscape ). Desert Channels Queensland. Retrieved 4 March 2013.〕 The waterhole is fed by Nutting Creek, which starts at an elevation of 347 metres and drops around 85.5 metres over its 72 kilometre length before merging with Powell Creek.〔(Map of Nutting Creek, QLD ). Bonzle. Retrieved 4 March 2013.〕 Powell Creek in turn flows through Hell Hole Gorge National Park to the south-west and eventually into the Barcoo River. The waterhole is surrounded by mulga ''Acacia aneura'' woodland. Rainfall averages 390 millimetres per year and is exceeded by evaporation of three to four metres per year. == A permanent waterhole in a semi-arid landscape == Permanent waterholes〔(Wetlands of Southern Queensland: Permanent river reaches and waterholes ). Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 4 March 2013.〕 are extremely rare in the arid and semi-arid landscapes of the Lake Eyre Basin. These rare, often isolated waterholes are of vital importance as biological refugia and underpin the health and vitality of the aquatic animals.〔 Permanent waterholes have been defined as those that have not gone dry since European settlement and are generally about four metres deep when they cease to flow. They mostly occur on main rivers and creeks where they receive regular inundation.〔 Rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin exist mostly as a series of ephemeral, semi-permanent and permanent waterholes and flow only seasonally in response to summer monsoonal rainfall in the upper catchments. Aquatic organisms which lack desiccation-resistant life-stages (i.e. cannot survive ‘drying out’), are reliant on refuges during drought, as are wetland-dependent organisms which do not readily disperse, or which cannot move long distances between isolated habitats. Such animals include all fish, some macroinvertebrates, the Cooper Creek Turtle ''Emydura macquarii subsp. emmotti'' and water rat ''Hydromys chrysogaster''.〔 These waterholes also provide vital habitat for land mammals, reptiles, frogs and woodland birds that need to live near permanent water and/or that favour trees with hollows.〔Environmental Protection Agency (1999), ''Permanent river reaches and waterholes of south-western Queensland'', [Reprinted from Jaensch, R. 1999. The status and importance of Queensland’s south-western wetlands. Report by Wetlands International-Oceania to Environmental Protection Agency (see http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/register/p00210aa.pdf).〕 Permanent waterholes also tend to have consistently higher species diversity than ephemeral and semi-permanent waterholes and provide consistency and stability in a highly variable system. The reduction of rivers to a handful of waterholes during drought highlights both the importance and vulnerability of these refuges.〔 The main factors leading to the permanent nature of Yapunyah Waterhole include: * The rocky substrate (bottom) which holds water; * The steep nature of the surrounding landscape which causes scouring during high rainfall events and increases the depth. The steep (and rocky) landscape also protects it from drying winds; * Local run-off from the adjacent hard country, tops up the waterhole during smaller rainfall events in the dry season; and * The water is not used for domestic purposes because of its remote and inaccessible location. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yapunyah waterhole」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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