The Hainan Island monsoon rain forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

(WWF ID:IM0169) covers mountainous interior of

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

Island in China. The tropical forests receive over 1,000 mm/year of rain, heavily concentrated in the summer rainy season. The island has high levels of biodiversity, with over 4,200 plant species, 630 of which are endemic to the island. The region is under ecological pressure from deforestation for agriculture and timber extraction.

Location and description

Hainan ("South of the Sea") Island is about 13,000 square miles in area, and separated from the

Leizhou Peninsula The Leizhou Peninsula, alternately romanized as the Luichow Peninsula, is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in South China. History Qing naval forces were stationed at the Leizhou Peninsula. During the 19th century ...

by only 15 miles. The monsoon rain forest ecoregion encompasses the interior mountain range, surrounded by the coastal plains. (The coastal plains fall in an entirely different ecoregion - the South China-Vietnam subtropical evergreen forests ecoregion). The highest point in the Hainan mountains is Wuzhi Mountain at . There is a small sector of this ecoregion on the east coast of the Leizhou Peninsula.

Climate

The climate of the ecoregion is '' Tropical savanna climate - dry winter'' (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

(Aw)). This climate is characterized by relatively even temperatures throughout the year, and a pronounced dry season. The driest month has less than 60 mm of precipitation, and is drier than the average month. Precipitation averages up 2,000 mm/yr on the west side; 1,000 mm/year on the east side.

Flora and fauna

Because Hainan Island and the Leizhou Peninsula were connected by a land bridge until the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

, there are relatively few endemic genera, but many endemic species. Scientists have recorded 4,200 plant species (including 450 trees), and 98 mammal species. During the dry season before monsoon season in the summer, drought-stressed deciduous trees drop their leaves. The forest canopy is generally sparse, and sufficient light reaches the ground to support a grass under-story. Trees at the mid-level altitudes include chinquapin (''

Castanopsis ''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. A total o ...

'', stone oaks (''

Lithocarpus ''Lithocarpus'' is a genus in the beech family, Fagaceae. Trees in this genus are commonly known as the stone oaks and differ from ''Quercus'' primarily because they produce insect-pollinated flowers on erect spikes and the female flowers have ...

''), and laurels (

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). They are dicotyledons, and occur ma ...

). At higher and drier areas of the interior, more savanna-like conditions are found, with brush and silk trees ('' Albizia procera''). Above 1,600 meters, a

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

exists.

References

{{reflist Ecoregions of China Indomalayan ecoregions Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Location and description

Climate

Flora and fauna

See also

References