Ecoregions of New Guinea

Last updated

New Guinea, lying within the tropics and with extensive mountain areas, comprises a wide range of ecoregions. These include rainforests, grasslands and mangrove.

Contents

Terrestrial ecoregions

New Guinea is in the Australasian realm, which also includes the islands of Wallacea to the west, the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu to the east, and Australia and New Zealand. [1]

Sea levels were lower during the Ice Ages, which exposed the shallow continental shelf and connected New Guinea to Australia into a single land mass. Several nearby islands, including the Aru Islands, most of the Raja Ampat Islands, and Yapen, were also connected to the mainland, which allowed the flora and fauna of New Guinea and the continental shelf islands to mix. [2]

Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

The lowland rainforest of the Western New Guinea Forest, Akimuga, Mimika.jpg
The lowland rainforest of the Western New Guinea

Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Montane grasslands and shrublands

Mangrove

Freshwater ecoregions

Marine ecoregions

The oceans around New Guinea are part of the Central Indo-Pacific marine realm. The realm is divided into marine provinces, which are further divided into marine ecoregions. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions". For example, based on their levels of endemism, Madagascar gets multiple listings, ancient Lake Baikal gets one, and the North American Great Lakes get none.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Islands rain forests</span>

The Solomon Islands rain forests are a terrestrial ecoregion covering the Solomon Islands archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird's Head Peninsula</span> Peninsula in Indonesia

The Bird's Head Peninsula or Doberai Peninsula is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces of Southwest Papua and West Papua. It is often referred to as The Vogelkop, and is so named because its shape looks like a bird's head on the island of New Guinea. The peninsula at the opposite end of the island is called the Bird's Tail Peninsula. The peninsula just to the south is called the Bomberai Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests</span> Ecoregion in New Guinea

The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of northern New Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Archipelago</span> A marine ecoregion of the Pacific Ocean

The Solomon Archipelago is a terrestrial ecoregion and marine ecoregion in the Pacific Ocean. It includes the tropical ocean waters surrounding most of the Solomon Islands archipelago, and includes Bougainville Island and Buka Island of Papua New Guinea and their surrounding waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Guinea</span> Island in the Pacific Ocean

New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi). Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the 150-kilometre wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf, and were united during episodes of low sea level in the Pleistocene glaciations as the combined landmass of Sahul. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The island's name was given by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez during his maritime expedition of 1545 due to the resemblance of the indigenous peoples of the island to those in the African region of Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Islands (archipelago)</span> Archipelago in the South Pacific spreading over two countries

The Solomon Islands (archipelago) is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The many islands of the archipelago are distributed across the sovereign states of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The largest island in the archipelago is Bougainville Island, which is a part of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville along with Buka Island, the Nukumanu Islands, and a number of smaller nearby islands. Much of the remainder falls within the territory of Solomon Islands and include the atolls of Ontong Java, Sikaiana, the raised coral atolls of Bellona and Rennell, and the volcanic islands of Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Makira, Malaita, New Georgia, the Nggelas, Santa Isabel, and the Shortlands. The Santa Cruz Islands are not a part of the archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vogelkop–Aru lowland rain forests</span> Ecoregion in Indonesia

The Vogelkop–Aru lowland rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in Indonesia. The ecoregion covers the peninsular lowlands of western New Guinea, along with the Aru Islands and other nearby islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vogelkop montane rain forests</span> Ecoregion in New Guinea

The Vogelkop montane rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in western New Guinea. The ecoregion covers the mountains of western New Guinea's Bird's Head and Bomberai peninsulas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamberamo Foja Wildlife Reserve</span>

Mamberamo Foja Wildlife Reserve is a large protected area on New Guinea, in Indonesia's Papua Province. It covers an area of 16,610 km2, and extends along the Mamberamo River and its tributaries from the foothills of the Central Range to the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests</span> Ecoregion in New Guinea

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yapen rain forests</span> Ecoregion in Indonesia

The Yapen rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in Indonesia. The ecoregion covers the island of Yapen and smaller neighboring islands which lie north of New Guinea.

References

  1. Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Island Press; Washington, DC.
  2. Jared Diamond, K. David Bishop "Origins of the upland avifauna of Yapen Island, New Guinea region," Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 140(4), 423-448, (9 December 2020)
  3. Mark D. Spalding, Helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson, Zach A. Ferdaña, Max Finlayson, Benjamin S. Halpern, Miguel A. Jorge, Al Lombana, Sara A. Lourie, Kirsten D. Martin, Edmund McManus, Jennifer Molnar, Cheri A. Recchia, James Robertson, Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas, BioScience, Volume 57, Issue 7, July 2007, Pages 573–583, https://doi.org/10.1641/B570707