The Central Polynesian tropical moist forests is a

tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests 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 (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in la ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

. It includes the northern group of the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

, the

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands () are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons, except Vostok and Jarvis) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawa ...

Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

, and

Johnston Atoll Johnston Atoll is an Unincorporated territories of the United States, unincorporated territory of the United States, under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force (USAF). The island is closed to public entry, and limited access for mana ...

Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an Territories of the United States#Unincorporated u ...

Palmyra Atoll Palmyra Atoll (), also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Line Islands, Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati). It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way be ...

, and

Kingman Reef Kingman Reef () is a largely submerged, uninhabited, triangle-shaped reef, geologically an atoll, east-west and north-south, in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa. It has an area of 3 hecta ...

which are possessions of the United States.

Geography

All the islands in the ecoregion are

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

s, low islands of coral sand surrounding a central lagoon. There are eight inhabited and nine uninhabited atolls. The islands of the ecoregion are aligned from north-northwest to south-southeast for , crossing the equator. The northernmost,

, is at 16°44′N latitude and 169°31′W longitude. The southernmost is Suwarrow at 13°16′S latitude and 163° 7′W longitude.

Teraina Teraina (written also Teeraina, also known as Washington Island – these two names are Constitution of Kiribati, constitutional) is a coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean and part of the Northern Line Islands which belong to Kiribati. Ob ...

Tabuaeran Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of the island nation of Kiribati. The land area is , and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is abou ...

Kiritimati Kiritimati (), also known as Christmas Island, is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonol ...

, Malden, Starbuck,

Vostok Vostok () refers to east in Russian but may also refer to: Spaceflight * Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project * Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union * Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived ...

, Caroline, and

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

are part of Kiribati.

, and

are territories of the United States. Kiritimati is the largest island in the 388 square kilometres.

lies northwest of the Line Islands and southwest of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

. The Northern Cook Islands include the atolls of

Pukapuka Pukapuka, formerly Danger Island, is a coral atoll in the Northern Cook Islands, northern group of the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most remote islands of the Cook Islands, situated about northwest of Rarotonga. On th ...

Rakahanga Rakahanga is part of the Cook Islands, situated in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. The unspoilt atoll is from the Cook Islands' capital, Rarotonga, and lies south of the equator. Its nearest neighbour is Manihiki which is just away. Raka ...

Manihiki 250px, Map of Manihiki Atoll Manihiki is an atoll in the northern group of the Cook Islands known informally as the "Island of Pearls". It is located in the Northern Cook Island chain, approximately north of the capital island of Rarotonga, ...

, Penrhyn, and Suwarrow. The Southern Cook Islands are in the separate Cook Islands tropical moist forests ecoregion.

Climate

The climate of the islands is tropical. Temperature is warm year-round, with little seasonal variation. The southern and northern islands are within the

trade wind The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, ...

belt, and regularly receive 1,500 and 3,000 mm of annual rainfall. The islands within 5° latitude of the equator receive less than 1000 mm annually, with periodic droughts.

Flora

The native vegetation on the more humid islands is tropical atoll forest. The characteristic species are common to coastal

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

areas, and include the trees '' Pisonia grandis,

Calophyllum inophyllum ''Calophyllum inophyllum'' is a large evergreen plant, commonly called tamanu, oil-nut, mastwood, beach calophyllum or beautyleaf. It is native to the Old World Tropics, from Africa through Asia to Australia and Polynesia. Due to its importance a ...

, Heliotropium foertherianum,

Pandanus tectorius ''Pandanus tectorius'' is a species of ''Pandanus'' (screwpine) that is native to Malesia, Papuasia, eastern Australia, and the Pacific Islands. It grows in the coastal lowlands typically near the edge of the ocean. Common names in English inclu ...

, Cordia subcordata'', and ''

Guettarda speciosa ''Guettarda speciosa'', with common names sea randa, or zebra wood, is a species of shrub in the family Rubiaceae found in coastal habitats in tropical areas around the Pacific Ocean, including the coastline of central and northern Queensland an ...

'', and the shrubs ''

Morinda citrifolia ''Morinda citrifolia'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, native to Southeast Asia and Australasia, which was spread across the Pacific by Polynesian sailors. The species is now cultivated throughout the tropics and widel ...

, Scaevola taccada, Suriana maritima'', and '' Pemphis acidula''. The driest and lowest islands are covered with low plants, including the grass '' Lepturus repens'' and the creepers ''

Tribulus cistoides ''Tribulus cistoides'', also called wanglo (in Aruba), the Jamaican feverplant or puncture vine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae, which is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Habitat ''Tribulus c ...

'' or '' Portulaca lutea'', with areas of ''Heliotropium foertherianum, Pemphis acidula'', and ''Scaevola taccada'' scrub.

Fauna

The islands' vertebrate fauna is principally seabirds, which form large colonies on some islands. There are no native non-marine mammals or amphibians. The sole passerine bird is the endemic bokikokiko (''Acrocephalus aequinoctialis''), a reed warbler found on Teraina, Tabuaeran, and Kiritimati. Kuhl's lorikeet (''Vini kuhlii'') is an endangered parrot found on Kiritimati and Teraina and on Rimatara in the Tubuai Islands to the southeast. Its range once included the Cook Islands.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 83% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. protected areas include: *

wildlife refuge * Suwarrow atoll * Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument protects Kingman Reef, Johnson Atoll, Jarvis Island, and Palmyra Atoll.

References

External links

*{{WWF ecoregion, name=Central Polynesian tropical moist forests, id=oc0102
Central Polynesian tropical moist forests (DOPA)

Central Polynesian tropical moist forests (Encyclopedia of Earth)
Ecoregions of the Cook Islands Ecoregions of Kiribati Ecoregions of the United States Oceanian ecoregions Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests