The Mamberamo Lakes Plains (Dutch Meervlakte, Malay ''dataran danau-danau'') are a large, flat low-lying area of the
Mamberamo River
The Mamberamo (''Indonesian: Sungai Mamberamo'') is the second longest river on the island of New Guinea, after Sepik River (1,146 km) and third largest in Oceania by discharge (5,500 m3/s) volume after Fly River (7,500 m3/s) and Sepik (7,000 m3/ ...
basin in the Indonesian province
Papua on the island of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
. The plain is defined by the meandering tributaries of the Mamberamo, and includes hundreds of
oxbow lakes. It is 300 kilometers long and about 50 kilometers wide, and is entirely enclosed by mountains apart from the outlet of the Mameramo.
[Ronald G. Petocz (1989) ''Conservation and Development in Irian Jaya'', p. 8]
It is inhabited in the west, but the eastern lobe is largely uninhabited.
Biology
Biologically, the plains are covered by tropical lowland jungle. Much of that is ''
Adina'' and ''
Barringtonia spicata'' (see ''
Barringtonia
''Barringtonia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lecythidaceae first described as a genus with this name in 1775. It is native to Africa, southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The genus nam ...
'')
swamp forest
Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found ...
, large areas of
sago palm
Sago palm is a common name for several plants which are used to produce a starchy food known as sago. Sago palms may be "true palms" in the family Arecaceae, or cycads with a palm-like appearance. Sago produced from cycads must be detoxified before ...
, and
marsh
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...
vegetation with ''
Echinochloa stagnina''. During the rainy season, large parts of the remaining forest is flooded for months at a time. These areas are populated with ''
Timonius'', ''
Dillenia
''Dillenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Dilleniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of southern Asia, Australasia, and the Indian Ocean islands.
The genus is named after the German botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius, ...
'' or ''
Nauclea
''Nauclea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The species are evergreen trees or shrubs that are native to the paleotropics. The terminal vegetative buds are usually strongly flattened. The generic name is derived from the ...
''.
[World Wide Fund for Nature (1994) ''Centres of Plant Diversity: Asia, Australasia, and the Pacific'', p. 413]
Hydrology
South of the Lakes Plains lies the Central Dividing Range, the highest part of the western
New Guinea Highlands
The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's tallest peak, Puncak Jaya , the highest mountain in Oceania. The range is home ...
, which drains into the basin. The basin is bisected by two major rivers, the
Tariku, which originates in the
Jayawijaya Mountains The Jayawijaya Mountains, formerly known as the Orange Range, are the eastern mountain range of the Maoke Mountains in the central highlands region of the Indonesian part of New Guinea. The range extends for east of the Sudirman Range to the Star M ...
to the west and flows eastwards, and the
Taritatu, which rises in the east, not far from the PNG border, and flows westwards. The major tributary of the Taritatu to the south, the
Sobger River, originating in the
Maoke Mountains, while to the north the
Songgolo and
Pauwasi Rivers join to form its other major tributary. In the middle of the Lakes Plains, the two rivers meet and merge to form the Mamberamo, one of the largest rivers of New Guinea. The Mamberamo flows out through a gorge between the
Van Rees Mountains to its west and the
Foja Mountains
The Foja Mountains (Foja Range, Foya Mountains) ( id, Pegunungan Foja) are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to , and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the inte ...
to its east.
[
]
See also
* Lakes Plains languages
References
{{Reflist
Valleys of Indonesia
Geography of New Guinea