The Fiji tropical moist 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 ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...

and

Wallis and Futuna Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (; french: Wallis-et-Futuna or ', Fakauvea and Fakafutuna: '), is a French island collectivity in the South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji ...

. It covers the windward sides of

Viti Levu Viti Levu (pronounced ) is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji. It is the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population. Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian ...

and

Vanua Levu Vanua Levu (pronounced ), formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of and a population of 135,961 . Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically ...

, Fiji's largest islands, as well as the smaller Fijian islands and the three islands that make up

, an overseas territory of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Geography

Fiji has more than 300 islands. Viti Levu and Vanua Levu are the largest, and together comprise 78% of Fiji's land area. The highest peak in Fiji is

Mount Tomanivi Mount Tomanivi, previously named Mount Victoria and also known as Tomaniivi, is an extinct volcano located in the northern highlands of Viti Levu. At , Mount Tomanivi is the highest mountain in Fiji. A trail leads to the summit of Tomanivi from ...

(1,324 m) on Viti Levu. The islands are volcanic in origin, formed by the subduction of the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and I ...

under the

Australian Plate The Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate in the eastern and, largely, southern hemispheres. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, Australia remained connected to India and Antarctica until approximately when India brok ...

. The islands emerged from the sea 5 to 20 million years ago. Wallis and Futuna is made up of three islands, Uvea, Futuna, and

Alofi Alofi is the capital of the Pacific Ocean island nation of Niue. With a population of 597 in 2017, Alofi has the distinction of being the second smallest national capital city in terms of population (after Ngerulmud, capital of Palau). It cons ...

. Futuna and Alofi lie close to one another, approximately 400 km northeast of Vanua Levu. Uvea, or Wallis, is northeast of Futuna and Alofi. The highest peak in the group is Mount Singavi (765 m) on Futuna.

Rotuma Rotuma is a Fijian dependency, consisting of Rotuma Island and nearby islets. The island group is home to a large and unique Polynesian indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognisable minority within the population of Fiji, known as " ...

is a volcanic island 500 km north of Viti Levu and politically part of Fiji. It has an area of 47 km², and the highest elevation on the island is 250 metres.

Climate

The ecoregion has a humid tropical climate. Mean monthly temperatures range from in January. Rainfall occurs throughout the year, and the prevailing winds are mostly from the southeast. Most of the ecoregion receives over of rain per year. Rainfall is higher on southeast-facing slopes, and the windward mountains receive 5000–10,000 mm of rainfall per year. The islands occasionally experience

Tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...

s between January and April. The northwestern portions of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu are in the mountains' rain shadow, and receive less rain overall with a winter dry season. These areas are home to the Fiji tropical dry forests ecoregion.

Flora

The three main plant communities in the ecoregion are lowland rain forest, montane rain forest, and cloud forest. Lowland rain forest predominates below 400 meters elevation on all the smaller islands, and in the southeast-facing lowlands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Common trees include ''

Degeneria vitiensis ''Degeneria vitiensis'' is a flowering tree found on Viti Levu in Fiji. It is relatively common plant and is used as timber. It has been found in upland forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of fo ...

Pandanus joskei ''Pandanus joskei'' is a species of plant in the family Pandanaceae. It is endemic to Fiji. References Endemic flora of Fiji joskei Vulnerable plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by John Horne (botanist) Taxa name ...

, Myristica macrantha, Endiandra gillespiei, Agathis macrophylla,

Calophyllum vitiense ''Calophyllum'' is a genus of tropical flowering plants in the family Calophyllaceae. They are mainly distributed in Asia, with some species in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, and the Pacific Islands. History Members of the genus ''Calophyllu ...

Canarium vitiense ''Canarium vitiense'' is a rainforest tree species, of the plant family Burseraceae, growing naturally in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Admiralty Islands, Louisiade Archipelago, Torres Strait Isla ...

, Calophyllum neo-ebudicum,

Syzygium ''Syzygium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific. ...

'' spp., and '' Garcinia myrtifolia''. Other lowland forest trees in Wallis and Futuna include '' Rhus taitensis,

Elaeocarpus angustifolius ''Elaeocarpus angustifolius'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and occurs from India to New Caledonia and northern Australia. Common synonyms are ''E. ganitrus'' and ''E. sphaericus''. It is a large evergreen tree, of ...

Elaeocarpus tonganus ''Elaeocarpus'' is a genus of nearly five hundred species of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae native to the Western Indian Ocean, Tropical and Subtropical Asia, and the Pacific. Plants in the genus ''Elaeocarpus'' are trees or shrubs ...

Planchonella ''Planchonella'' is a genus of flowering trees in the gutta-percha family, Sapotaceae. Named in honour of Jules Émile Planchon, it contains around 100 mainly tropical species, two of which occur in South America and about 18 in Australasia. It w ...

'' spp., ''

Pometia pinnata ''Pometia pinnata'' is a large tropical hardwood and fruit tree species, with common names including matoa, taun tree, island lychee, tava, Pacific lychee of the plant family Sapindaceae. Naturally widespread, the trees are native to tropical So ...

'', and '' Myristica fatua''. Montane rain forests are found on windy slopes from 400 to 600 meters elevation. Temperatures are 4 to 6º C cooler than in the coastal lowlands. The windy conditions creates a low, stunted forest characterized by the trees '' Agathis vitiensis,

Podocarpus ''Podocarpus'' () is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family, the Podocarpaceae. The name comes from Greek πούς (poús, “foot”) + καρπός (karpós, “fruit”). ''Podocarpus'' species ...

'' spp., ''

, Endospemum macrophyllum, Myristica castaneifolia,

Dysoxylum ''Dysoxylum'' is a flowering plant genus of trees and shrubs from the mahogany family, Meliaceae. Botanical science has recorded about eighty species in this genus, growing widely across the regions of Malesia, the western Pacific ocean, Austr ...

'' spp., and ''

Metrosideros collina ''Metrosideros collina'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is native to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands. Taxonomy The species was first formally described by botanist Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg For ...

''. The cloud forests occur between 600 and 900 meters elevation on the larger Fijian islands and on Futuna. Rainfall is higher than the lowlands, exceeding 4500 mm per year in most areas. Temperatures are cooler, ranging from 10 to 20º C. The cloud forest trees form a dense canopy about seven meters high. Common trees include tree ferns (''

Cyathea ''Cyathea'' is a genus of tree ferns, the type genus of the fern order Cyatheales. The genus name ''Cyathea'' is derived from the Greek ''kyatheion'', meaning "little cup", and refers to the cup-shaped sori on the underside of the fronds. De ...

'' spp.), '' Dysoxylum gillespianum,

Hernandia moerenhoutiana ''Hernandia moerenhoutiana'' (also known as Mountain Lantern-tree, Jack-in-the-box, ''Tūrina'', ''Puka Tūrina'' (Cook Islands Māori), ''Pipi'' ( Samoan) or ''Pipi Tui'' ( Tongan)) is a species of flowering plant in the family Hernandiaceae. I ...

Fagraea ''Fagraea'' is a genus of plants in the family Gentianaceae. It includes trees, shrubs, lianas, and epiphytes. They can be found in forests, swamps, and other habitat in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, with the center of diversity in M ...

'' spp., ''

'' spp., and ''

Macaranga seemannii ''Macaranga'' is a large genus of Old World tropical trees of the family Euphorbiaceae and the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae (tribe Acalypheae). Native to Africa, Australasia, Asia and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, t ...

''. '' Leptopteris'' ferns and the climbers ''

Freycinetia ''Freycinetia'' is one of the five extant genera in the flowering plant family Pandanaceae. The genus comprises approximately 180–200 species, most of them climbers. The species are distributed through the tropics and subtropics of South Asia ...

'' spp. are abundant.

Fauna

The ancestors of Fiji's land animals arrived via long-distance dispersal. There are many endemic species, and some are limited to one or two islands. Fiji has 177 species of birds, including 31 endemic species. The islands have four endemic doves, the orange fruit dove (''Ptilinopus victor''), golden fruit dove (''P. luteovirens''),

whistling fruit dove The whistling fruit dove (''Ptilinopus layardi''), also known as the velvet dove or yellow-headed dove, is a small fruit dove from Fiji. The species is endemic to the islands of Kadavu and Ono in the Kadavu Group in the south of Fiji. Taxonomy T ...

(''P. layardi''), and Barking imperial pigeon (''Ducula latrans''). The collared lory (''Phigys solitarius''), red-throated lorikeet (''Charmosyna amabilis''), and masked shining parrot (''Prosopeia personata''), are endemic; the red shining parrot (''Prosopeia tabuensis'') is a Fijian endemic that was introduced to

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

in ancient times. The

bar-winged rail The bar-winged rail (''Hypotaenidia poeciloptera'') was a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It was endemic to Fiji and was last collected ca 1890 in Viti Levu. The species was identified from twelve 19th century specimens, some of which are ...

(''Rallus poecilopterus'') is endemic to Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, and may be extinct. The

silktail The silktails are a group of birds endemic to Fiji. The two species ( Taveuni silktail and Natewa silktail) are placed in the genus ''Lamprolia''. They look superficially like a diminutive bird-of-paradise but are actually closely related to t ...

s (''Lamprolia'') are a Fijian endemic genus with two species – the

Taveuni silktail The Taveuni silktail (''Lamprolia victoriae'') is a species of bird endemic to Fiji. This beautiful bird looks superficially like a diminutive bird-of-paradise but it is actually closely related to the fantails. Finsch named the species after ...

(''Lamprolia victoriae'') is limited to

Taveuni Taveuni (pronounced ) is the third-largest island in Fiji, after Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, with a total land area of . The cigar-shaped island, a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated to the east of ...

, and the

Natewa silktail The Natewa silktail (''Lamprolia klinesmithi'') is a species of bird endemic to Fiji. This beautiful bird looks superficially like a diminutive bird-of-paradise but it is actually closely related to the fantails. The species name ''kleinschmid ...

(''Lamprolia klinesmithi'') to Vanua Levu. The

long-legged warbler The long-legged thicketbird (''Cincloramphus rufus'') is a small bird endemic to Fiji. The species is sometimes known as the long-legged warbler. It was formerly classified as the sole representative of the genus ''Trichocichla''. The long-le ...

(''Cincloramphus rufus'') and

pink-billed parrotfinch The pink-billed parrotfinch (''Erythrura kleinschmidti'') is a species of estrildid finch found on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji. Commonly found at undisturbed mature forest in the centre and east of Viti Levu, e.g. Joske's Thumb near Suva. This ...

(''Erythrura kleinschmidti'') are also endemic. Bats are the only native terrestrial mammals in the ecoregion. The

Fijian monkey-faced bat The Fijian monkey-faced bat (''Mirimiri acrodonta'') Also known as Fijian flying fox or Fijian flying monkey, is a megabat endemic to Fiji. It was discovered in old-growth cloud forest on Des Vœux Peak, the second highest mountain peak (1,195 m ...

(''Pteralopex acrodonta'') is endemic, and the Fijian mastiff bat (''Chaerephon bregullae'') is found in the Fijian Islands and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of ...

. Endemic reptiles include the

Fiji crested iguana The Fiji crested iguana or Fijian crested iguana (''Brachylophus vitiensis'') is a critically endangered species of iguana native to some of the northwestern islands of the Fijiian archipelago, where it is found in dry forest on Yaduataba (west ...

(''Brachylophus vitiensis''), Lau banded iguana (''Brachylophus fasciatus''), and Fiji snake (''Ogmodon vitianus''). The endemic Fiji ground frog (''Cornufer vitianus'') and Fiji tree frog (''Platymantis vitiensis'') are the easternmost native amphibians in the Oceanian realm.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 598 km², or 6%, of the ecoregion is in

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

s. Protected areas include Sovi Basin Protected Area (20.0 km²), Nadarivatu Forest Reserve, Tomaniivi Nature Reserve (11.04 km²), and Colo-i-suva Forest Reserve (4.97 km²) on Viti Levu, and the contiguous Ravilevu Nature Reserve (40.2 km²) and Bouma Lavena Recreation Reserve (37.69 km²) on

.UNEP-WCMC (2020). Protected Area Profile for Fiji from the World Database of Protected Areas, September 2020. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net

References

External link

* {{WWF ecoregion, name=Fiji tropical moist forests, id=oc0105 Oceanian ecoregions Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Ecoregions of Fiji