The New Britain-New Ireland lowland 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 ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The ecoregion covers the lowland rain forests of

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

, New Ireland, and nearby islands in the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

Geography

The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands lying northeast of the island of

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 includes the lowland rain forests on New Britain, New Ireland, and nearby smaller islands, including

Umboi Umboi (also named Rooke or Siassi) is a volcanic island between the mainland of Papua New Guinea and the island of New Britain. It is separated from New Britain by the Dampier Strait and Huon Peninsula, and New Guinea by the Vitiaz Strait. It ha ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, and

Karkar Karkar may refer to: *Karkar, Selseleh, a village in Iran *Karkar Island, an island in Papua New Guinea *Karkar language, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea *Karkar Rural LLG, a local-level government in Papua New Guinea *Karkar Morghi Deli Baja ...

, near the New Guinea coast west of New Britain. The islands north of New Ireland, including New Hanover (Lavongai), the

Saint Matthias Group The St Matthias Islands (also known as the Mussau islands) are a small archipelago group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, in northern Papua New Guinea. They are within New Ireland Province. Geography There are at least 10 islands. The larg ...

Tabar Group The Tabar Group is an island group in Papua New Guinea, located north of New Ireland. It is a part of the Bismarck Archipelago. The Tabar group consists of a short chain of three main islands - Tabar Island (a.k.a. Big Tabar) in the south, Ta ...

Lihir Group Lihir Group is an island group in Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, I ...

Tanga Islands The Tanga Islands are an island group in Papua New Guinea, located north-east of New Ireland and part of the Bismarck Archipelago. Tanga is made up of four main islands — Boang, Maledok, Lif and Tefa — and a number of smaller, uninhabited i ...

, and Feni Islands, are also part of the ecoregion.Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). ''Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment.'' Washington, DC: Island Press. New Britain is the largest island in the ecoregion, with an area of . New Ireland is the second-largest, with an area of . The archipelago is mostly made of volcanic rocks, with extensive areas of limestone. Several of the ecoregion's volcanoes are still active. The islands are generally mountainous, with

Mount Ulawun Ulawun is a basaltic and andesitic stratovolcano in West New Britain, West New Britain Province, on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. About southwest of the township of Rabaul, Ulawun is the highest mountain in New Britain and the ...

on New Britain reaching . The portions of New Britain and New Ireland above of elevation constitute the separate

New Britain-New Ireland montane rain forests New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

ecoregion.

Climate

The ecoregion has a tropical wet climate. Annual rainfall varies from , depending on location.

Flora

The predominant vegetation in the ecoregion is tropical rain forest.

Fauna

The ecoregion has 47 species of mammals. 36 of them are bats, and the rest are murid rodents or

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. The ecoregion has 19

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 ...

bird species. These include the

black honey buzzard The black honey-buzzard (''Henicopernis infuscatus''), also commonly known as the New Britain Honey-Buzzard, is a large raptor of the family Accipitridae. Standing at around tall, the adult black honey-buzzard has a dark head and body, with stri ...

(''Henicopernis infuscatus''), slaty-mantled sparrowhawk (''Accipiter luteoschistaceus''), New Britain sparrowhawk (''Accipiter brachyurus''),

New Britain bronzewing The New Britain bronzewing (''Henicophaps foersteri'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea. In 1988, it was rated as a near threatened species on the International Union for Conservation of ...

(''Henicophaps foersteri''),

blue-eyed cockatoo The blue-eyed cockatoo (''Cacatua ophthalmica'') is a large, mainly white cockatoo about long with a mobile crest, a black beak, and a light blue rim of featherless skin around each eye that gives this species its name. Like all cockatoos and m ...

(''Cacatua ophthalmica''), green-fronted hanging parrot (''Loriculus tener''), Bismarck hawk owl (''Ninox variegata''), Bismarck kingfisher (''Ceyx websteri''), New Britain kingfisher (''Todirhamphus albonotatus''),

rusty thicketbird The rusty thicketbird (''Cincloramphus rubiginosus'') is a bird species. Previously placed in the "Old World warbler" family Sylviidae, it does not seem to be a close relative of the typical warblers; probably it belongs in the grass warbler fami ...

(''Cincloramphus rubiginosus''), white-breasted monarch (''Symposiachrus menckei''), Matthias fantail (''Rhipidura matthiae''), black-bellied myzomela (''Myzomela erythromelas''),

Ashy myzomela The ashy myzomela (''Myzomela cineracea'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is found in New Britain and Umboi Island in Papua New Guinea. It was previously considered a subspecies of the ruby-throated myzomela The ruby-thro ...

(''Myzomela cineracea''), scarlet-bibbed myzomela (''Myzomela sclateri''), mottled munia (''Lonchura hunsteini''), New Ireland munia (''Lonchura forbesi''), New Hanover munia (''Lonchura nigerrima''), and Bismarck woodswallow (''Artamus insignis'').

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that , or 3%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. About two-thirds of the unprotected area is still forested.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Britain-New Ireland lowland rain forests Australasian ecoregions Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea Flora of the Bismarck Archipelago Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests