The Solomon Islands

rain forests Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, ...

are a

terrestrial 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 ...

covering most of the

Solomon Islands archipelago The Solomon Islands (archipelago) is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The ...

Geography

Included are the islands of Bougainville and Buka, which are part of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and most of the islands within the nation of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. Excluded are the eastern islands of the nation of Solomon Islands, the

Santa Cruz Islands The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the nation of Solomon Islands discovered by the Spaniards. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands ...

, which lie in the

Vanuatu rain forests The Vanuatu rain forests are tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion which includes the islands of Vanuatu, as well as the Santa Cruz Islands group of the neighboring Solomon Islands. It is part of the Australasian realm, which ...

ecoregion together with the neighbouring archipelago of

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 no ...

. Both ecoregions 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 ...

, which also includes the neighbouring Bismarck Archipelago and

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 ...

, as well as New Caledonia, Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The Solomon Islands rain forests are a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion, also known as a tropical rainforest.

Flora

The natural vegetation of the Solomon archipelago consists of lowland and montane tropical forests. The major plant communities include coastal strand,

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland rain forests, and montane rain forest. Seasonally-dry forests and grasslands are found on the northern ( leeward) slopes of Guadalcanal.

Fauna

The islands are home to 47 native mammal species, including

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, murid rodents, and possums, gliders, and cuscuses. 26 species are endemic or near-endemic – 17 species of bats, and nine species of murid rodent. 199 bird species are native to the Solomon archipelago, of which 69 species are endemic. The ecoregion corresponds to the Solomon group endemic bird area. BirdLife International (2020) Endemic Bird Areas factsheet: Solomon group. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 02/06/2020.

Conservation and threats

The rainforests of this region are under threat as the governments of both Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands rely on logging for revenue, plan to expand farm land and to develop roads.

External links

*
Solomon group endemic bird area (BirdLife International)

References

{{coord, -7.93, 157.93, dim:650000, display=title Australasian ecoregions Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea Ecoregions of the Solomon Islands Environment of the Solomon Islands * * * Geography of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Geography of the Solomon Islands Natural history of Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands (archipelago) Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests