The Bahamian pineyards are a tropical and subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

and the

Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and no ...

Geography

The Bahamian pineyards cover an area of . Pineyards are found on four of the northern islands in the Bahamas:

Andros Andros (, ) is the northernmost island of the Greece, Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and ...

, Abaco,

Grand Bahama Grand Bahama is the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas. It is the third largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays. The island is roughly in area and approximately long west to east and at it ...

, where they cover half of the island, and

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in The Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. On the eastern side of the island is the national capital, national capital city of Nassau, Bahamas, Nassau; it had a population of 246 ...

, as well as the Caicos Islands.

Origin and history

Despite having a rich modern flora and fauna and being critically important to native and

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

species of the Bahamas, preserved

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

records collected from

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

s indicate that the pineyards, or at least the ones of the northern Bahamas (Abaco, Grand Bahama, New Providence, and Andros) have a largely

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human impact on the enviro ...

origin. Prior to the arrival of the

Lucayan people The Lucayan people ( ) were the original residents of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands before the European colonisation of the Americas. They were a branch of the Taínos who inhabited most of the Caribbean islands at the time. The ...

, the northern Bahamas were originally covered in

Bahamian dry forests The Bahamian dry forests are a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, covering an area of . They are found on much of the northern Bahamas, including Andros, Abaco, and Grand B ...

composed primarily of poisonwood (''Metopium toxiferum''), gumbo-limbo (''Bursera simaruba''), and

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

Arecaceae The Arecaceae () is a family (biology), family of perennial plant, perennial, flowering plants in the Monocotyledon, monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbing palm, climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly k ...

, ''

Eugenia ''Eugenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It has a worldwide, although highly uneven, distribution in tropical and subtropical regions. The bulk of the approximately 1,100 species occur in the New World tropics, ...

'', and ''

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solana ...

'' species, with a unique

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

-dominated faunal community: the top herbivore of this habitat was the

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

Albury's tortoise (''

Chelonoidis alburyorum ''Chelonoidis'' is a genus of turtles in the tortoise family erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1835. They are found in South America and the Galápagos Islands, and formerly had a wide distribution in the West Indies. The multiple subspecies of t ...

'') and the top predator was the now-extirpated

Cuban crocodile The Cuban crocodile (''Crocodylus rhombifer'') is a small-medium species of crocodile endemic to Cuba. Typical length is and typical weight . Large males can reach as much as in length and weigh more than . Despite its smaller size, it is a hig ...

(''Crocodylus rhombifer''). The presence of conifers like ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

'' and ''

Juniperus Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

'' was likely minimal and localized around this time. Following the arrival of the Lucayans around

830 __NOTOC__ Year 830 ( DCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Britain * King Wiglaf of Mercia regains control from Wessex, and returns to the throne.Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. ...

CE, large reptiles became extinct or extirpated within 1–2 centuries, and the original hardwood forests were cleared between 875 and

1090 Year 1090 ( MXC) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * A third Almoravid expedition is launched in Al-Andalus, designed to finally subdue the Taifa's Kingdoms. The cities of Córdoba, ...

CE by increasing harvesting for

firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not heavily processed, and is in some sort of firelog, recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellet fuel, pellets. ...

and a newly introduced

fire regime A fire regime is the pattern, frequency, and intensity of the bushfires and wildfires that prevail in an area over long periods of time. It is an integral part of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. A fire regime describes th ...

for the purposes of

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

cultivation, leading to the islands having a more open habitat increasingly dominated by weedy, secondary-successional species such as southern bayberry (''Myrica cerifera''), West Indian nettle tree (''Trema lamarckianum'') and ''

Vachellia ''Vachellia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, commonly known as thorn trees or acacias. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Its species were considered members of genus '' Acacia'' until 2009. ''Vachellia'' ...

'' species. Pollen records indicate that the pine population significantly increased after

970 Year 970 ( CMLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 970th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' designations, the 970th year of the 1st millennium, the 70th year of the 10th century, and the 1st year ...

CE, with the modern pyrogenic pine forests being established by

1200 The Proleptic Gregorian calendar called it a century leap year. Events By place Europe * Spring – Boniface I, Marquis of Montferrat, sends envoys to Venice, Genoa and other city-states to negotiate a contract for transport to t ...

CE. An expansion of Barbados juniper (''Juniperus barbadensis'') also happened at the expense of the pines between 1400 and 1500. Between 1510 and 1765, after most of the Lucayans had been enslaved by the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...

and taken to

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

, a series of

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

led to the inundation of most of the low-lying pineyards with these being taken over by

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s, causing the pineyards to be restricted to upland areas. However, there was a new expansion of pineyards after the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

when

Loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

took over the islands and reintroduced a fire regime for agricultural opportunities. However, over next three centuries, human activities post-colonization again lead to a decline in the extent of the pineyards.

Flora

Pineyards are dominated by Bahamian pine ( ''Pinus caribaea'' var. ''bahamensis''), while pinepink (''

Bletia purpurea ''Bletia purpurea'', common name pine-pink or sharp-petaled bletia, is a species of orchid widespread across much of Latin America and the West Indies, and also found in Florida. They are Terrestrial plant, terrestrial in swamps or sometimes foun ...

''), bushy beard grass ('' Andropogon glomeratus''), southern bracken fern (''

Pteridium aquilinum ''Pteridium aquilinum'', commonly called bracken, brake, pasture brake, common bracken, and also known as eagle fern, is a species of fern occurring in temperate and subtropical regions in both hemispheres. Originally native to Eurasia and North ...

''), Florida clover ash (''

Tetrazygia bicolor ''Miconia bicolor'' is a species flowering plant in the glory bush family, Melastomataceae, that is native to southern Florida in the United States and the Caribbean. Common names include Florida clover ash, Florida tetrazygia, and West Indian l ...

''), Bahamian trumpet tree ('' Tabebuia bahamensis''), West Indian snowberry (''

Chiococca alba ''Chiococca alba'' is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to Florida and the extreme southern tip of Texas in the United States, Bermuda, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and tropical Sou ...

''), devil's gut ('' Cassytha filiformis''), poisonwood (''

Metopium toxiferum ''Metopium toxiferum'', the poisonwood, Florida poisontree, coral sumac, or hog gum, is a species of flowering tree in the cashew or sumac family, Anacardiaceae, that is native to the American Neotropics. It produces the irritant urushiol muc ...

''), coontie (''

Zamia integrifolia ''Zamia integrifolia'', also known as coontie, is a small, tough, woody cycad native to the southeastern United States (in Florida and formerly in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia), the Bahamas, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Puerto Rico. Descriptio ...

'') and thatch palm (''

Coccothrinax argentata ''Coccothrinax argentata'', commonly called the Florida silver palm, is a species of Arecaceae, palm tree. It is native to south Florida, southeast Mexico, Colombia and to the West Indies, where it is found in the Bahamas, the southwest Caribbean ...

'') grow in the

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

. Without regular

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

s, pineyards are supplanted by broadleafed

coppice Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

. Young Bahamian pines require extensive amounts of sunlight to grow, and are resistant to fire once they become adults.

Fauna

Fauna found in the pine forests include reptiles, such as rock iguanas (''

Cyclura ''Cyclura'' is a genus of lizards in the family Iguanidae. Member species of this genus are commonly known as "cycluras" (or more commonly as rock iguanas) and only occur on islands in the West Indies. Rock iguanas have a high degree of endemism ...

'' sp.) and boas ('' Epicrates'' sp.), and birds, such as the West Indian woodpecker (''Melanerpes superciliaris''), Bahama woodstar (''Calliphlox evelynae''), Bahama yellowthroat (''Geothlypis rostrata''), the possibly-extinct Bahama nuthatch (''Sitta insularis''), Bahama oriole (''Icterus northropi''), Bahama warbler (''Setophaga flavescens'') and

Bahama swallow The Bahama swallow (''Tachycineta cyaneoviridis'') is an endangered swallow endemic to The Bahamas. Description This glossy '' Tachycineta'' swallow has a green head and back, blue upper wings, a black tail and wingtips, and a white belly and ch ...

(''Tachycineta cyaneoviridis'').

Kirtland's warbler Kirtland's warbler (''Setophaga kirtlandii''), also known in Michigan by the common name jack pine bird, or the jack pine warbler, is a small songbird of the New World warbler family (biology), family (Parulidae). Nearly Extinction, extinct just ...

s (''Dendroica kirtlandii'')

migrate Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

every year from

jack pine Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana''), also known as grey pine or scrub pine, is a North American pine. Distribution and habitat Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories t ...

forests in the

Lower Peninsula of Michigan The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the Geography of Michigan, two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula of Mic ...

to spend the winter in the Bahamian pineyards. The only mammal found is the

buffy flower bat The buffy flower bat (''Erophylla sezekorni'') is a species of bat in the leaf-nosed bat family, Phyllostomidae. It is found in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Jamaica. Description The buffy flower bat is considered a medium-sized b ...

(''Erophylla sezekorni''). Many of these species are endemic to this habitat and depend on the pines, and are threatened by activities such as deforestation and storm damage that have led to declines in the extent of the forest.

Threats

Increased logging of junipers after colonization and the pines themselves after the 20th century has again lead to a decline in the extent of the pineyards, which has been compounded by

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

such as the beach sheoak (''Casuarina equisetifolia'') and the increasing frequency of hurricanes due to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

; Hurricanes

Frances Frances is an English given name or last name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'the French.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "F ...

, Jeanne, and especially Dorian have all dealt massive, lasting damage to the pineyards. At least one species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

, the Bahama nuthatch (''Sitta insularis'') may have been driven to extinction in 2019 as a result of Hurricanes Matthew and Dorian; a distinct population of the Bahama oriole from Abaco was also extirpated in the 1990s following

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures dama ...

. Evidence indicates that tropical hardwood forests such as the ones that formerly covered the Bahamas are naturally much more resilient to hurricane damage than pine-dominated ones; due to this, the special vulnerability of the pineyards ecosystem to climatic extremes may be due to its anthropogenic origin.

References