The Southern New Guinea 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 in southeastern
New Guinea. The ecoregion covers portions of New Guinea's southern lowlands.
Geography
The ecoregion includes the foothills and lowlands south of New Guinea's
Central Range Central Range, Central Mountains, or Central Mountain Range may refer to several ranges of mountains, including:
* Central Range, New Guinea
* Central Range, Taiwan
* Central Range, Trinidad and Tobago
* Central Range, Venezuela
See also
* Cent ...
. Above 1000 meters elevation, the lowland forests transition to the
Central Range montane rain forests
The Central Range montane rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion on the island of New Guinea. The ecoregion covers the Central Range of the New Guinea Highlands, which extends along the spine of the island. The montane rain forests of ...
. The
Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests
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.
Geography
New Guinea is home to extensive swa ...
ecoregion covers extensive areas of the
Fly River lowlands to the south, and the lower reaches of some other rivers that drain from the highlands to the sea. The
Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands
The Trans Fly savanna and grasslands are a lowland ecoregion on the south coast of the island of New Guinea in both the Indonesian and Papua New Guinean sides of the island. With their monsoon and dry season climate these grasslands are quite di ...
cover the southern tip of New Guinea.
Climate
The ecoregion has a humid tropical climate. The slopes of the Central Range above 100 meters elevation include some of the rainiest portions of New Guinea.
Flora
Broadleaf evergreen rain forests cover most of the ecoregion. Alluvial forests lie in the plains, and hill forests cover the foothills of the Central Range. There are smaller areas of semi-evergreen forest, swamp forest, and savanna.
Fauna
The ecoregion has 69 species of mammals, principally
marsupials,
bats, and
murid rodents. There are no strict endemic species. There are 344 species of birds in the ecoregion.
The largest bird in the ecoregion is the flightless
southern cassowary
The southern cassowary (''Casuarius casuarius''), also known as double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary or two-wattled cassowary, is a large flightless black bird. It is one of the three living species of cassowary, alongside the dwarf c ...
(''Casuarius casuarius'').
Protected areas
A 2017 assessment found that 5,841 km², or 5%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. About three-quarters of the ecoregion is still forested.
[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
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References
{{reflist
Australasian ecoregions
Ecoregions of Indonesia
Ecoregions of New Guinea
Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests