The Huon Peninsula montane rain forests is a

tropical moist forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

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 ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The ecoregion covers the mountains of northeastern New Guinea's

Huon Peninsula Huon Peninsula is a large rugged peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Morobe Province, eastern Papua New Guinea. It is named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. The peninsula is dominated by the steep Saruwaged and Finister ...

Geography

The ecoregion is made up of montane rain forests on the Huon Peninsula. The montane rain forests occur above 1000 meters elevation on the Peninsula's mountain ranges, which include the Finisterre (to 4,176 m), Saruwaged (to 4,122 m), and

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

and Rawlinson ranges.Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). ''Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment.'' Washington, DC: Island Press.

Climate

The ecoregion has a montane tropical rain forest climate.

Flora

The ecoregion's forests are of several types, which vary with rainfall, elevation, and underlying soils. Lowland hill forests occupy the foothills of the range, forming a transition between the lowland alluvial forests below and the montane forests above. Montane rain forests grow between 1000 and 3000 meters elevation. Evergreen broadleaf trees are predominant, with conifers occurring above 2000 meters elevation and becoming more abundant at higher elevations. Species composition varies with elevation. There are also areas of limestone forest. The ephiphytic

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

'' Merrilliobryum tanianum'' is endemic to the ecoregion.

Fauna

The ecoregion has 81 species of mammals, including

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

s, murid rodents, and bats. There are

Huon tree kangaroo Matschie's tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus matschiei''), also known as the Huon tree-kangaroo is a tree-kangaroo native to the Huon Peninsula of northeastern New Guinea island, within the nation of Papua New Guinea. Under the IUCN classification, Ma ...

(''Dendrolagus matschiei'') is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the ecoregion. Several limited-range rodents, including the Highland brush mouse (''Abeomelomys sevia'') and

Ernst Mayr's water rat Ernst Mayr's water rat (''Leptomys ernstmayri'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae, named for evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr. It is found in the Foja Mountains of Papua Province, Indonesia, and in the mountains of northeastern Papu ...

(''Leptomys ernstmayri''), inhabit the ecoregion and neighboring highlands. There are two endemic bird species, the

Emperor bird-of-paradise The emperor bird-of-paradise (''Paradisaea guilielmi''), also known as emperor of Germany's bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise. The emperor bird-of-paradise is endemic to Papua New Guinea. It is distributed in hill forests of the ...

(''Paradisaea guilielmi'') and

Huon astrapia The Huon astrapia (''Astrapia rothschildi''), also known as Rothschild's astrapia, Huon bird-of-paradise, or Lord Rothschild's bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise belonging to the genus ''Astrapia''. Like most of its congeners, ''A ...

(''Astrapia rothschildi''). Together with the

Adelbert Range Adelbert Range is a mountain range in Madang Province, north-central Papua New Guinea. The highest point of the mountains is at . The Northern Adelbert languages and Southern Adelbert languages are spoken in the region. Fauna and flora As with ...

to the west (which is part of the

Northern New Guinea montane rain forests The Northern New Guinea montane rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in northern New Guinea. The ecoregion covers several separate mountain ranges lying north of New Guinea's Central Range and south of the Pacific Ocean. Geogra ...

ecoregion), the ecoregion forms the Adelbert and Huon ranges

endemic bird area An Endemic Bird Area (EBA) is an area of land identified by BirdLife International as being important for habitat-based bird conservation because it contains the habitats of restricted-range bird species (''see below for definition''), which are the ...

."Endemic Bird Areas factsheet: Adelbert and Huon ranges". BirdLife International (2020). Accessed 14 July 2021. http://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/177. 300px, left, Hooded_pitohui_(''Pitohui_dichrous'')_in_YUS_Conservation_Area_.html" ;"title="YUS_Conservation_Area.html" ;"title="Hooded pitohui (''Pitohui dichrous'') in YUS Conservation Area">Hooded pitohui (''Pitohui dichrous'') in YUS Conservation Area ">YUS_Conservation_Area.html" ;"title="Hooded pitohui (''Pitohui dichrous'') in YUS Conservation Area">Hooded pitohui (''Pitohui dichrous'') in YUS Conservation Area

Protected areas

3.7% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include Nusareng Wildlife Management Area (10.26 km²) and YUS Conservation Area (793.11 km²).

External links

*
"Huon Peninsula montane rain forests". ''DOPA Explorer''

Adelbert and Huon ranges endemic bird area (BirdLife International)

References

{{reflist Australasian ecoregions Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea Ecoregions of New Guinea Montane forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests