Who is protecting the blue mountains

Er komen 91 eucalyptustaxa voor; een teken dat de soort zowel qua structuur als ecologie divers is en een grote reeks van habitats kent. De Greater Blue Mountains-regio bestaat uit acht beschermde gebieden en staat ook bekend om de manier waarop het zich evolutionair heeft aangepast.

Het gebied geeft een mooi beeld van de Australische biodiversiteit: 10 procent van de vaatplanten komt er voor en een groot aantal zeldzame, bedreigde soorten zoals de inheemse Wollemia pijnboom. Source: unesco. Spread across eight adjacent conservation reserves, it constitutes one of the largest and most intact tracts of protected bushland in Australia. It also supports an exceptional representation of the taxonomic, physiognomic and ecological diversity that eucalypts have developed: an outstanding illustration of the evolution of plant life.

A number of rare and endemic taxa, including relict flora such as the Wollemi pine, also occur here. Ongoing research continues to reveal the rich scientific value of the area as more species are discovered. The geology and geomorphology of the property, which includes metre cliffs, slot canyons and waterfalls, provides the physical conditions and visual backdrop to support these outstanding biological values.

The property includes large areas of accessible wilderness in close proximity to 4. Its exceptional biodiversity values are complemented by numerous others, including indigenous and post-European-settlement cultural values, geodiversity, water production, wilderness, recreation and natural beauty. Criterion ix : The Greater Blue Mountains include outstanding and representative examples in a relatively small area of the evolution and adaptation of the genus Eucalyptus and eucalypt-dominated vegetation on the Australian continent.

The site contains a wide and balanced representation of eucalypt habitats including wet and dry sclerophyll forests and mallee heathlands, as well as localised swamps, wetlands and grassland. It is a centre of diversification for the Australian scleromorphic flora, including significant aspects of eucalypt evolution and radiation. Representative examples of the dynamic processes in its eucalypt-dominated ecosystems cover the full range of interactions between eucalypts, understorey, fauna, environment and fire.

These are examples of ancient, relict species with Gondwanan affinities that have survived past climatic changes and demonstrate the highly unusual juxtaposition of Gondwanan taxa with the diverse scleromorphic flora. Criterion x : The site includes an outstanding diversity of habitats and plant communities that support its globally significant species and ecosystem diversity plant families, genera and c.

Due to the pressure from the east, causing a raised area in the monoclinal fold, making the entire region elevated. After continuous years of erosion, as well as a volcanic eruption, the Blue Mountains slowly formed shaped, with thick bushland eventually sporting on top of it. The Jenolan Caves may be one of the oldest and most significant open cave systems in the entire world. Developing over million years ago, they are made from a Karst rock material, which has slowly eroded to create these caves from continuous rain and wind.

Crown land permanently reserved under Act. Seven adjoining protected areas form a buffer zone of 86, ha. Within each park is a protected wilderness.

These total , ha It lies distant from the coast between 55 km in the south and km in the north across the Cumberland Plain. It is a well forested deeply incised sandstone upland plateau, much of it still wilderness. The northern parks are a maze of moderately dissected ridges and valleys; the central and southern parks are deeply dissected, with many topographic features.

The rocks which give the Blue Mountains their distinctive character are sandstone plateaus, cliffs and towers, with shales and some granite, basalt, and limestone karst. These originated in a late Cambrian subduction zone which was overlaid by Siluro-Devonian deposits including the carbonate reefs in which the Jenolan caves formed.

Subsequent uplift, erosion, marine flooding, deposition and the growth of extensive coal swamps followed. The sandstones and shales, still almost horizontally bedded but now between and 1, meters high, were laid down as riverine sediments from the Late Permian to the Mid Triassic.

The high escarpment is probably the result of uplift and tectonic movements in the Cretaceous. But in the rim-rock area of the southwest, very ancient underlying basement granites are exposed.

Volcanism was an important feature during both the Siluro-Devonian and the Jurassic, periods when a number of volcanic necks were extruded which have now eroded to form circular amphitheatres. The very hard and relatively impermeable sandstones which are highly resistant to erosion are in many areas underlain by much softer shales which erode more easily. This produces slot canyons like the 30m deep Grand Canyon which is only 3m wide at the top, that become wide valleys in which small underfit rivers flow where the sandstone cap has collapsed.

High cliffs are prominent, including the Cliff Wall which runs from the north of Wollemi National Park almost km south, reaching nearly m high just south of Wentworth Falls. A large number of spectacular waterfalls cascade from these cliffs. Weathering of joints in the limestone and bands of ironstone produce pinnacles and pagoda-like forms. The sandstone-derived soils are dry, infertile, acidic and phosphorous-poor, but they vary within short distances.

There are pockets of volcanic soils and several valley floors are alluvial. There has been some erosion by wind and intense fires, and the superb lyrebird while excavating for food or building nest-mounds could have had some impact on erosion over time since they may turnover an average of 63 tonnes of debris per hectare per year Mosley, ; NPWS, b.

The climate is warm-temperate but temperatures decrease westwards with distance and altitude. On Mount Victoria there are on average 40 days of frost a year, and 10 days of snow, although this rarely lasts through the day. Rainfall patterns are varied, with a pronounced summer maximum.

Mean annual rainfall typically ranges from 1, to 1,mm in the central areas, but there are areas of rain- shadow to the west of the escarpment and in some of the deeper valleys, Little Hartley for instance, receiving an annual average of mm.

Droughts occur periodically. Winds are typically dry, from the north-west and north and are most pronounced in the winter Mosley, The blue haze which hangs over the mountains is partly due to the light-scattering volatile oils of the eucalyptus trees.

The Greater Blue Mountains is one of the three most diverse areas on earth for scleromorphic species, and the only such area outside a Mediterranean climate and dominated by trees. It is also a centre of plant endemism. This is due largely to its exceptional geological stability and intricate topography which has allowed some environments with their biota to persist for millennia as refugia from climatic change.

Its inaccessibility has also preserved this heritage. Contact in Blue Mountains National Park in the Sydney and surrounds region Katoomba area is always open but some locations may close at times due to maintenance, poor weather or fire danger.

Closed Christmas Day. Donate now. Close dialog Provide feedback. Feedback type. Comment Compliment Complaint. Your feedback. What topic was your feedback about? Does your feedback relate to a specific location? Would you like a response? Your name. Your email optional. Your mobile number optional. Please confirm that you are not a robot.