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WATER: it's for wildlife too

Extremely reliant on moisture, frogs know how to conserve water and how to celebrate rain. This muddy-footed desert spadefoot toad was one of masses encountered by photographer Martin Cohen one February evening near Tennant Creek after a big thunderstorm. ‘Presumably they had been underground conserving water for a long time and emerged to breed after the storm,’ he suggests.

Martin and his partner Julia Cooper are regular contributors to the Queensland section of NatureWatch.

By Ed Meyer

How do Australian frogs cope with water shortages on Earth’s driest continent?

Frogs, even more than other terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles) depend on water for survival. Because of their permeable skin, frogs must contend with significant losses of body water, particularly in hot, dry environments. They do this surprisingly well, with many species able to tolerate remarkable short-term losses of 20 percent or more. Water lost through evaporation must, nevertheless, be replaced.

By Katrin Holmsten

The scenery and the wildlife are breath-taking: the calcium-rich water of Lawn Hill Creek cut through ancient sandstone, create spectacular tufa deposits – and support a fossil turtle that 'breathes through its bum'.

In the Queensland summer of 2007-08, water poured down in tonnes. It covered back yards and house floors, cut off towns and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Yet in most of Queensland, water remains in great demand. Kilometres of dusty roads pass huge cattle stations, termite mounds and apparently empty plains on the way to Lawn Hill National Park.

By Colin Harris and Travis Gotch

Surrounded by dry land, these surprising pockets of spring-fed vegetation support rare and endemic species. Stranded on desert islands – actually, freshwater refuges in the desert – species once widespread have evolved into a diversity of endemics in these extraordinary landscapes.

Dominating the terrestrial invertebrate fauna are the wolf spiders. Here, as in many other groups, there are endemic species. Venatrix fontis, the most studied, is well adapted to its semi-aquatic lifestyle. These spiders can break the surface tension of the water at will. If disturbed, they can hide under water until the threat has passed.

By Brian Timms

Water weathers out spaces for lively aquatic habitats in arid zones. Even on solid rock, water has a way of creating landscapes and supporting life, such as fast-living gnamma shrimp.

Especially on granites and sandstones, slight depressions can weather into rock basins known in Australia as gnammas. Although pan gnammas are generally less than 2m in diameter and 20cm deep, and the rarer pit gnammas up to 2m deep, most gnammas are large enough to hold water – and where there is water, however briefly, there is an invitation to life...

By Frank Harrison

Nearly silent themselves, they employ acute hearing, ‘visual purple’ and stiletto talons. Not only is the iris of a barking owl eye a striking colour, it can open the pupil to the edge of the visible eye for maximum light-gathering. A high ratio of rods to cones in the retina contributes to the success of owls as nocturnal hunters.

While an owl’s eye-sight is legendary, it is not, however, miraculous. They do not see night as day. However, the average owl can see approximately two-and-a-half times as well as humans. This may be sufficient to turn an owl’s dusk to human daylight and owl dark into human dusk.

By Saren Starbridge, Photography by Darren Jew

What’s happening to the water in Australia’s biggest river? It’s a big question.

Look at a river. Chances are, you’ll see two banks with a flow of water, or at least a few muddy pools, between them. It’s deceptively easy to believe that’s all there is. But rivers are far more intricate and extensive. They are complex hydrological systems comprising landscapes, vegetation, wetlands, floodplains and groundwater as well as the actual stream channel.

In the case of the Murray – Australia’s longest river and part of the extensive Murray- Darling Basin catchment – the complexity includes a plethora of councils, committees, commissions, projects, policies, programs, reports, agreements, strategies and more than a century of degradation, with strong links to irrigation.

• The Owl Pages
• The Living Murray
• NSW Murray Wetlands Working Group

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