The Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp 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 ...

in southern

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 extensive swamp forests of southern and western New Guinea.

Geography

New Guinea is home to extensive swamp forests. These forests are permanently waterlogged or seasonally inundated during the rainy season. The Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests extend from the western

Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...

to the

Papuan Peninsula The Papuan Peninsula, also known as the Bird's Tail Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Papua New Guinea, southeast of the city of Lae, that makes up the southeastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The peninsula is the easternmost extent of t ...

in the southeast. The forests lie in the lower reaches of the rivers that drain New Guinea's highlands. The most extensive swamp forests are in the basin of the

Fly River The Fly River is the third longest river in the island of New Guinea, after the Sepik River and Mamberamo River, with a total length of and the largest by volume of discharge in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its cat ...

. The

Southern New Guinea lowland rain forests The Southern New Guinea lowland rain forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical moist forest ecoregion in southeastern New Guinea. The ecoregion covers portions of New Guinea's southern lowlands. Geography The eco ...

and Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests ecoregions occupy the adjacent lowlands. Near the coast the freshwater swamp forests transition to

New Guinea mangroves The New Guinea mangroves is a mangrove ecoregion that covers extensive areas of the coastline New Guinea, the large island in the western Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Location and description The New Guinea mangroves cover an area of , ...

as the waters become brackish or salt.

Climate

The ecoregion has a humid tropical climate.

Flora

The freshwater swamp forests support diverse habitats, from open water to grass swamps of several types (dominated by ''

Leersia ''Leersia'' is a genus of plants in the grass family which includes species known generally as cutgrasses. The genus is widespread across many countries on all the inhabited continents. It was named for the German botanist Johann Daniel Leers ...

'', ''

Saccharum ''Saccharum'' is a genus of tall perennial plants of the broomsedge tribe within the grass family. The genus is widespread across tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, the Americas, and assorted oceani ...

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in London ...

'', '' Pseudoraphis'', or mixed swamps with no dominant plant), swamp savannas (''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They range in size ...

''-dominated or mixed), swamp woodlands (dominated by

sago palm Sago palm is a common name for several plants which are used to produce a starchy food known as sago. Sago palms may be "true palms" in the family Arecaceae, or cycads with a palm-like appearance. Sago produced from cycads must be detoxified before ...

(''Metroxylon sagu''), ''

Pandanus ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...

'', or mixed), and swamp forests dominated by ''

Campnosperma ''Campnosperma'' is a genus of rainforest trees in the Cashew Family (Anacardiaceae). They are found in the East Indies, south Asia and the Seychelles. Species , the ''Plants of the World Online'' accepts 14 species: * '' Campnosperma auriculatu ...

Terminalia Terminalia may refer to: * Terminalia (festival), a Roman festival to the god of boundaries Terminus * ''Terminalia'' (plant), a tree genus * Terminalia (insect anatomy), the terminal region of the abdomen in insects * ''Polyscias terminalia'', a ...

'', or ''Melaleuca''.

Fauna

The ecoregion is home to fifty mammal species, 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 ...

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

s, and murid rodents. There is one endemic mammal species, the

Fly River water rat The Fly River water rat (''Leptomys signatus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruc ...

(''Leptomys signatus''). The ecoregion has 339 species of birds, including resident and migratory birds. The ecoregion's lakes and wetlands support large populations of water birds.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 8,583 km², or 9%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Over 80% of the ecoregion has relatively intact vegetation.Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b

/ref>

External links

References

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