The Northern New Guinea montane 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 ...

in northern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. The ecoregion covers several separate mountain ranges lying north of New Guinea's Central Range and south of the Pacific Ocean.

Geography

The ecoregion includes the montane forests above 1000 meters elevation in the Van Rees Mountains, Foya Mountains,

Cyclops Mountains The Cyclops Mountains ( id, Pegunungan Cycloop) are located to the west of Jayapura in Papua, Indonesia, and north of Lake Sentani. In Papua, it is also known as Dafonsoro or Dabonsolo mountain, and is the namesake for football club Persidafon. ...

, Bewani Mountains,

Torricelli Mountains The Torricelli Mountains are a mountain range in Sandaun Province, north-western Papua New Guinea. The highest peak in the range is Mount Sulen at 1650 meters. The Bewani Mountains are located to the west, and the Prince Alexander Mountains ar ...

Prince Alexander Mountains The Prince Alexander Mountains are a mountain range in Papua New Guinea. The range is located on the northern coast of New Guinea. The Torricelli Mountains lie to the west, and the basin of the Sepik River lies to the south. Mount Turu is a nota ...

, and Adelbert Mountains. These isolated mountain ranges rise from the northern New Guinea lowlands, running generally east–west and between the Central Range and the sea. The northern New Guinea mountains are not as high as the Central Range; the Van Rees mountains reach to , Foya to , the Cyclops to , the Bewani to , the Torricelli to , the Prince Alexander to , and the Adelbert Mountains to . The montane forests are surrounded by

Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of northern New Guinea. Setting The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests extend across the northern low ...

at lower elevations but differ from the lowland forests in form and species composition.

Climate

The ecoregion has a montane tropical rain forest climate.

Flora

Montane tropical rain forests cover most of the ecoregion. The montane forests generally have a lower canopy than the lowland rain forests. Trees have smaller crowns, smaller glossy green leaves, and lack buttress roots. Common canopy trees include species of ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'', '' Lithocarpus,

Castanopsis ''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. A total o ...

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. ...

'', and ''

Ilex ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

'', the families Lauraceae,

Cunoniaceae Cunoniaceae is a family of 27 genera and about 335 species of woody plants in the order Oxalidales, mostly found in the tropical and wet temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The greatest diversity of genera are in Australia and Tasmania ...

, Myrtaceae, and

Elaeocarpaceae Elaeaocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family contains approximately 615 species of trees and shrubs in 12 genera."Elaeocarpaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol. VI. Springer-Verlag: Be ...

, and various conifers. ''Nothofagus'' and the conifer '' Araucaria'' can grow in pure and dense stands. Myrtaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, and conifers become more common at higher altitudes. Above 2000 meters elevation, the conifers ''

Dacrycarpus ''Dacrycarpus'' is a genus of conifers belonging to the family Podocarpaceae.Christopher N. Page. 1990. "Podocarpaceae" pages 332-346. In: Klaus Kubitzki (general editor); Karl U. Kramer and Peter S. Green (volume editors) ''The Families and Gene ...

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 ...

Phyllocladus ''Phyllocladus'', the celery pines, is a small genus of conifers, now usually treated in the family Podocarpaceae.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Timber Press: Portland, OR, USA. .'' ''Species occur mainly in New Zealand, ...

'', and '' Papuacedrus'' predominate as canopy trees and emergents.

Fauna

The ecoregion has 51 species of mammals, 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 ...

s, murid rodents, and bats. There are three

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 else ...

mammal species, Scott's tree kangaroo (''Dendrolagus scottae''), Cyclops long-beaked echidna (''Zaglossus attenboroughi''), and

northern glider The northern glider (''Petaurus abidi'') is a species of marsupial in the family Petauridae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea, becoming known to science in 1981 after being discovered in the Torricelli Mountains. This species has been found i ...

(''Petaurus abidi''). The ecoregion has four endemic bird species – Mayr's forest rail (''Rallina mayri''), golden-fronted bowerbird (''Amblyornis flavifrons''), fire-maned bowerbird (''Sericulus bakeri''), and Mayr's honeyeater (''Ptiloprora mayri''). It encompasses the North Papuan mountains endemic bird area.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that , or 15%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. About half 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

Mamberamo-Foja Wildlife Reserve Mamberamo Foja Wildlife Reserve is a large protected areas of Indonesia, protected area on New Guinea, in Indonesia's Papua Province. It covers an area of 16,610 km², and extends along the Mamberamo River and its tributaries from the foothills of t ...

and Pegunungan Cyclops Nature Reserve in Indonesia.

References

External links

* {{WWF ecoregion, name=Northern New Guinea montane rain forests, id=aa0116
North Papuan mountains endemic bird area (BirdLife International)
Australasian ecoregions Ecoregions of Indonesia Ecoregions of New Guinea Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea Montane forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests