The Bamu River is a river in southwestern
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
.
[ Bamu Riverin Geonames.org (cc-by) post updated 2012-01-17; database downloaded 2015-06-22]
Course
Large river in southwestern
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
. Its headwaters originate in the southern part of the
Mount Bosavi
Mount Bosavi is a mountain in the Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. It is the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, part of the Kikori River basin.Feld, pp.3–4 The crater is approximately 4 km wid ...
. It flows through the seasonally flooded, rainforested, swampy ''Papua Lowlands'' and empties into the
Gulf of Papua
The Gulf of Papua is located in the southern coast region of New Guinea. It has a total surface area of .
Geography
Some of New Guinea's largest rivers, such as the Fly River, Turama River, Kikori River, Purari River, and Wawoi River flow ...
after more than 300 km. It is also called the ''Aworra River'' up to the mouth of the
Wawoi. Its
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...
is a tidal
delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet
* D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
widened into a funnel. The tidal range of the sea is about 50 km.
Hydrology
The southern part of its catchment receives 2,500 mm of
rainfall
Rain is a form of precipitation where water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. ...
per year, reaching 4,500 mm in the north and east. This area is classified as type ''Af'' according to
Köppen's climate classification. Average
discharge in wet years is .
Tributaries
The largest tributaries of the Bamu:
Ecology
The river is home to
fish
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
species such as
barramundi
The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...
and
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...
. The surrounding landscape is also home to a variety of
fauna
Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...
such as
Rusa deer,
wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...
, wild
pigs
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...
,
crocodiles
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant member ...
and various
lizards
Lizard is the common name used for all squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The ...
.
See also
*
List of rivers of Papua New Guinea This is a list of rivers of Papua New Guinea.
In alphabetical order
New Britain
* Aemoi River
* Apmi River
* Balima River (Papua New Guinea)
* Johanna River (New Britain)
* Warangoi River
New Ireland
* Aparam River
* Lossuk River
* Lumis Rive ...
*
List of rivers of Oceania
This is a list of rivers in Oceania.
Australia
*List of rivers of Australia
Cook Islands
*Avana River
Fiji
*Ba River (Fiji), Ba River
*Dreketi River
*Navua River
*Rewa River
*Sigatoka River
French Polynesia
*Papenoo River
New Zealand
*List o ...
*
List of rivers by discharge
file:Rivers of the world by discharge volume.png, upright=1.5, Rivers with an average discharge of 5,000 m3/s or greater, as a fraction of the estimated global total.
This article lists rivers by their average discharge (hydrology), discharge measu ...
*
Geography of Papua New Guinea
The geography of Papua New Guinea describes the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, the islands of New Ireland, New Britain and Bougainville, and smaller nearby islands. Together these make up the nation of Papua New Guinea in tropical Oc ...
*
Bamu language, a language of Papua New Guinea
*
Bamu Rural LLG, Papua New Guinea
*
Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests
The Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in southern New Guinea. The ecoregion includes the extensive swamp forests of southern and western New Guinea.
Geography
New Guinea is home to extensive sw ...
References
Rivers of Papua New Guinea
{{PapuaNewGuinea-river-stub