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Shoal Bay (Darwin)
Shoal Bay is a shallow bay lying adjacent to, and north of, the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. Encompassing Hope Inlet at its eastern end, it is characterised by extensive areas of intertidal mudflats and mangroves and is an important site for waders, or shorebirds. The bay is situated within the Shoal Bay Coastal Reserve, a protected area that was established in 2000. Shoal Bay is also known for accommodating the Shoal Bay Receiving Station, a signals-intelligence collection facility that contributes to the NSA's global data collection program. Description The bay comprises the lower reaches of the Howard River and several small tidal creeks that drain into Hope Inlet. Much of the bay is exposed at low tide, with about of tidal mud and sand flats. Unlike most other bays in the Northern Territory, it is not associated with large rivers, nor freshwater coastal floodplains. It does include some swamps and remnants of monsoonal vine forest on the mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beagle Gulf, Northern Territory
Beagle Gulf is a gulf in the Northern Territory of Australia which opens on its west side to the Timor Sea. The gulf is bounded to the south by the mainland and to the north by Bathurst and Melville Islands. It is connected to Van Diemen Gulf in the east by Clarence Strait. Its south coast includes the natural harbours of Darwin and Bynoe. It is approximately 100 km long and 50 km wide. It surrounds the Quail Island Group. Name Beagle Gulf was named after the ship HMS ''Beagle'', on which Charles Darwin and Robert Fitzroy sailed around parts of Australia. The ''Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places'' incorrectly states that "it was named in 1836 by Robert Fitzroy, commander of HMS Beagle, after his ship. The Beagle charted the area with Charles Darwin aboard as naturalist." However, Darwin and Fitzroy sailed in 1836 from King George's Sound (Western Australia) directly to the Cocos-Keeling Islands, at the south coast of Java, and from there to Cape Town a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoal Bay Receiving Station
Shoal Bay Receiving Station is a signals intelligence-gathering facility in the Northern Territory of Australia located on the shores of Shoal Bay about north-east of the Darwin CBD. The site is managed by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). History One of the major purposes of the station has been to intercept and monitor Indonesian satellite communications and gather intelligence on the activities of the Indonesian military. The station was a major source of intelligence on the role played by the Indonesian military and associated militia groups in the violence in East Timor following the 1999 Referendum of Independence. The site may also have intercepted conversations regarding the planned murder of Australian journalists in East Timor by the Indonesian military, in 1975, prior to the killings taking place. The site is suspected to be a part of the global SIGINT network ECHELON, operated under the UKUSA Agreement. It is also a major contributor to the U.S. National ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding important sites for birds, maintaining and restoring key bird habitats, and empowering conservationists worldwide. It has a membership of more than 2.5 million people across 116 country partner organizations, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wild Bird Society of Japan, the National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy. BirdLife International has identified 13,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and is the official International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List authority for birds. As of 2015, BirdLife International has established that 1,375 bird species (13% of the total) are threatened with extinction ( critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable). BirdLife International p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioregion
A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the term in a rank-less generalist sense, similar to the terms "biogeographic area" or "biogeographic unit". It may be conceptually similar to an ecoprovince. It is also differently used in the environmentalist context, being coined by Berg and Dasmann (1977). WWF bioregions The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) scheme divides some of the biogeographic realms into bioregions, defined as "geographic clusters of ecoregions that may span several habitat types, but have strong biogeographic affinities, particularly at taxonomic levels higher than the species level (genus, family)." The WWF bioregions are as follows: * Afrotropical realm **Western Africa and Sahel **Central Africa **Eastern and Southern Africa ** Horn of Africa **Madagascar–I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typhonium Praetermissum
''Typhonium praetermissum'' is a species of plant in the arum family that is endemic to the Northern Territory of Australia. In 2022, Hay and others resurrected the genus, ''Lazarum'', and renamed the species as ''Lazarum praetermissum'' (a name accepted by Plants of the World Online). Description The species is a geophytic, perennial herb, which resprouts annually from a corm. The leaves vary from oval in shape to deeply divided, up to 4.5 cm long, on a stalk up to 5.5 cm long. The flower is enclosed in a brown and maroon spathe 4 cm long. The small fruits appear in November and December. Distribution and habitat The species occurs in the tropical Top End of the Northern Territory, with a range limited to the vicinity of Darwin and the Litchfield shire including Virginina, Karama, Noonamah, the Palmerston escarpment and Mandorah. Many sub-populations are under increasing pressure from development and weed incursion. It is found mainly in open woodland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utricularia Holtzei
''Utricularia holtzei'' is an annual affixed aquatic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus ''Utricularia'' (family Lentibulariaceae). It is endemic to the Northern Territory.Taylor, Peter. (1989). ''The genus Utricularia - a taxonomic monograph''. Kew Bulletin Additional Series XIV: London. See also * List of Utricularia species There are around 240 species in the genus ''Utricularia'', belonging to the bladderwort family (Lentibulariaceae). It is the largest genus of carnivorous plants and has a worldwide distribution, being absent only from Antarctica and the oceanic ... References Carnivorous plants of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory holtzei Lamiales of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller {{Australia-asterid-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utricularia Dunstaniae
''Utricularia dunstaniae'' is an annual terrestrial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus ''Utricularia'' (family Lentibulariaceae). Its distribution ranges from northern Western Australia to the Northern Territory.Taylor, Peter. (1989). ''The genus Utricularia - a taxonomic monograph''. Kew Bulletin Additional Series XIV: London. See also * List of Utricularia species There are around 240 species in the genus ''Utricularia'', belonging to the bladderwort family (Lentibulariaceae). It is the largest genus of carnivorous plants and has a worldwide distribution, being absent only from Antarctica and the oceanic ... References Carnivorous plants of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Eudicots of Western Australia dunstaniae Lamiales of Australia {{Australia-asterid-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptychosperma Macarthurii
''Ptychosperma macarthurii'', commonly known as the Macarthur palm, is a species of tree in the palm family Arecaceae. Its native range is northern Cape York Peninsula in Queensland with a number of disjunct populations in the Northern Territory and New Guinea. The species has been widely planted in tropical areas and is commonly grown as an indoor plant. Description ''P. macarthurii'' is a clumping (multi-stemmed) palm growing to a height of . The slender stems measure up to in diameter and have prominent leaf scars encircling the trunk. They are green in the younger sections of the trunk just below the crownshaft, but may be greyish lower down. The crown consists of between 3 to 13 paripinnate fronds to in length, with 15-40 pinnae (leaflets) on either side of the rachis (midrib), and have a crownshaft which measures about long. The leaflets measure up to in length, are regularly or irregularly arranged (often clustered), with nearly parallel margins and a truncated t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cycas Armstrongii
''Cycas armstrongii'' is a species of cycad in the genus ''Cycas'', endemic to Northern Territory of Australia. It is found from the Finniss River in the west to the Arnhem Highway in the east, north of Pine Creek. It also occurs on the Tiwi Islands and the Cobourg Peninsula The stems reach 3 m (rarely 6 m) tall, with a diameter of 5–11 cm. The leaves are (very unusually for a cycad) deciduous in the dry season (though persistent if grown in moister situations), 55–90 cm long, slightly keeled or flat, pinnate with 100-220 leaflets; the leaflets densely orange-pubescent at first, then glossy bright green above, light green below, 5.5–14 cm long and 4.5–8 mm wide, angled forward at 40 degrees. Mature plants have around 50 leaves in the crown. The female cones open, with 13–22 cm long sporophylls with 2-4 ovules per sporophyll on a lanceolate triangular lamina with an apical spine. The sarcotesta has a yellow coating when ripe. The mal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invasive Species In Australia
Invasive species in Australia are a serious threat to the native biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ..., and an ongoing cost to Agriculture in Australia, Australian agriculture. Numerous species arrived with European European maritime exploration of Australia, maritime exploration and colonisation of Australia and steadily since then. Management and the prevention of the introduction of new invasive species are key environmental and agricultural policy issues for the Australian federal and state governments. The management of weeds costs Australian dollar, A$1.5 billion on weed control and a further $2.5 billion yearly in lost agricultural production. Causes Both geology of Australia, geologic and climatic events helped to make Australia's fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between its limits to the north and south of the equator. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African, Asia–Australian, the North American, and South American monsoons. The term was first used in English in British India and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area. Etymology The etymology of the word monsoon is not wholl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudie, A. S., 2004, ''Encyclopedia of Geomorphology'', vol. 1. Routledge, New York. The soils usually consist of clays, silts, sands, and gravels deposited during floods. Because the regular flooding of floodplains can deposit nutrients and water, floodplains frequently have high soil fertility; some important agricultural regions, such as the Mississippi river basin and the Nile, rely heavily on the flood plains. Agricultural regions as well as urban areas have developed near or on floodplains to take advantage of the rich soil and fresh water. However, the risk of flooding has led to increasing efforts to control flooding. Formation Most floodplains are formed by deposition on the inside of river meanders and by overbank flow. Whereve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
