The Solomon Islands
rain forests are a
terrestrial ecoregion covering most of the
Solomon Islands archipelago.
Geography
Included are the islands of
Bougainville and
Buka, which are part of
Papua New Guinea and most of the islands within the nation of
Solomon Islands. Excluded are the eastern islands of the nation of Solomon Islands, the
Santa Cruz Islands, which lie in the
Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion together with the neighbouring archipelago of
Vanuatu. Both ecoregions are part of the
Australasian realm, which also includes the neighbouring
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
and
New Guinea, as well as
New Caledonia
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, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
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,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
New Zealand.
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 forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland rain forests, and montane rain forest. Seasonally-dry forests and grasslands are found on the northern (
leeward
Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...
) slopes of
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
.
Fauna
The islands are home to 47 native mammal species, including
bats,
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 An Endemic Bird Area (EBA) is an area of land identified by BirdLife International as being important for habitat-based bird conservation because it contains the habitats of restricted-range bird species (''see below for definition''), which are the ...
.
[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
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
for revenue, plan to expand farm land and to develop roads.
External links
*
Solomon group endemic bird area (BirdLife International)
References
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Australasian ecoregions
Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea
Ecoregions of the Solomon Islands
Environment of the Solomon Islands
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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