The Halmahera rain forests is a tropical moist forest

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 ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The ecoregion includes the island of

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. Ha ...

and neighboring islands, including Bacan, Morotai, the

Obi Islands The Obi Islands (also known as Ombirah, Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Obi'') are a group of 42 islands in the Indonesian province of North Maluku, north of Buru and Ceram, and south of Halmahera. With a total area of 3,048.08 km2, they had a pop ...

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the ...

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

Gebe Gebe is an island in Maluku Islands, Indonesia. Administratively it is part of Central Halmahera, North Maluku. The island is part of a small island group which also include Fau island, Yoi, Uta, and Sain. Gebe is part of the Halmahera rain f ...

, and many smaller islands.

Geography

Halmahera is the largest island in the ecoregion, with an area of 17,780 km². The islands are mountainous, and portions are volcanic in origin. Several volcanoes are still active, including Mount Gamkonora (1,560 m) the highest peak on Halmahera. The islands that make up the ecoregion are part of

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as ...

, a group of islands that are part of the

Australasian realm The Australasian realm is a biogeographic realm that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea and th ...

, but were never joined to either the Australian or Asian continents. The islands of Wallacea are home to a mix of plants and animals from both terrestrial realms, and have many unique species that evolved in isolation. The eastern boundary of the ecoregion follows Lydekker's Line, which demarcates the islands of Wallacea from the islands on the Australia-New Guinea continental shelf which were joined together during the ice ages when sea levels were lower.

Climate

The ecoregion has a tropical rain forest climate.

Flora

The main plant communities tropical lowland evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forest. '' Syzygium aromaticum'' is native to the ecoregion, and its aromatic flower buds are the source of the spice clove. ''

Myristica fragrans ''Myristica fragrans'' is an evergreen tree indigenous to the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It is important as the main source of the spices nutmeg and mace. It is widely grown across the tropics including Guangdong and Yunnan in China, Taiwan, ...

'', another native, is the source of

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

and mace, which are derived from its seeds. Both trees are widely cultivated on the islands. The recently discovered palm tree '' Jailoloa halmaherensis'' is endemic to Halmahera.

Fauna

The ecoregion is home to 38 mammal species. Seven species are endemic – the

ornate cuscus The ornate cuscus or Molluccan cuscus (''Phalanger ornatus'') is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it is found on the North Maluku islands of Halmahera, Bacan and Morotai Morotai Island ( i ...

(''Phalanger ornatus''),

Rothschild's cuscus Rothschild's cuscus (''Phalanger rothschildi''), also called the Obi Island cuscus, is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is endemic to the islands of Obi, Bisa and Obilatu in the Obi Islands of Maluku province, Indonesia ...

(''Phalanger rothschildi''), Gebe cuscus (''Phalanger alexandrae''),

blue-eyed cuscus The blue-eyed cuscus (''Phalanger matabiru'') is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is endemic to the two small islands of Ternate and Tidore, west of the island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, Indonesia Indonesi ...

(''Phalanger matabiru''), masked flying fox (''Pteropus personatus''),

Obi mosaic-tailed rat The Obi mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys obiensis'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian a ...

(''Melomys obiensis''), and

Molaccan prehensile-tailed rat The Molaccan prehensile-tailed rat (''Rattus morotaiensis'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in the Halmahera Islands of Indonesia, including Morotai, Halmahera, and Batjan The Bacan Islands, formerly also know ...

(''Rattus morotaiensis''). Cuscuses are arboreal

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 ...

s with origins in Australasia. The ecoregion is home to 223 bird species. It corresponds to the Northern Maluku endemic bird area. 23 species are endemic to the ecoregion. The endemics include four birds which are the only species in their genera, including the elusive

invisible rail The invisible rail, Wallace's rail, or drummer rail (''Habroptila wallacii'') is a large flightless rail that is endemic to the island of Halmahera in Northern Maluku, Indonesia, where it inhabits impenetrable sago swamps adjacent to forests. ...

(''Habroptila wallacii''), the white-streaked friarbird (''Melitograis gilolensis''), and two birds of paradise, the Halmahera paradise-crow (''Lycocorax pyrrhopterus'') and standardwing bird-of-paradise (''Semioptera wallacii''). The ecoregion is also home to the world's largest bee, Wallace's giant bee (''Megachile pluto'').

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 2,052 km², or 8%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Almost two-thirds of the unprotected area 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> Protected areas include Aketajawe-Lolobata National Park on Halmahera (1,673 km²).

External links

*
Northern Maluku endemic bird area (Birdlife International)

References

{{reflist Australasian ecoregions Ecoregions of Indonesia Ecoregions of Malesia Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Wallacea