The Southeastern Papuan rain forests is a tropical moist forest

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 ...

in southeastern

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. The ecoregion covers the mountainous center and coastal lowlands of the

Papuan Peninsula The Papuan Peninsula, also known as the Bird's Tail Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Papua New Guinea, southeast of the city of Lae, that makes up the southeastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The peninsula is the easternmost extent of ...

Geography

The mountains that run the length of the peninsula are the eastern extension of the mountainous spine that runs the length of New Guinea. The Watut-Tauri Gap separates the southeastern ranges, including the

Owen Stanley Range The Owen Stanley Range is the south-eastern part of the central mountain-chain in Papua New Guinea. Its highest point is Mount Victoria at , while its most prominent peak is Mount Suckling. History Owen Stanley Range was seen in 1849 by Captai ...

, from the mountains of Central New Guinea.Shearman, P. and Bryan, J. (2011), A bioregional analysis of the distribution of rainforest cover, deforestation and degradation in Papua New Guinea. Austral Ecology, 36: 9-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2010.02111.x Mount Victoria (4,038 m) in the Owen Stanley Range is the ecoregion's highest peak. The collision of the Owen Stanley Range is made up mostly of continentally-derived metamorphic rocks overlain by basaltic volcanic rocks. The Bowutu Mountains and eastern Kuper Range consist of

ultramafic Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are usua ...

rocks derived from oceanic crust and upper mantle. This formation is known as the Bowutu Ultramafic Belt or Papuan Ultramafic Belt.

Climate

The climate of the ecoregion varies with elevation. The lowlands are humid and tropical. Average temperatures decrease with elevation, and the highest portions of the Owen Stanley Range experience regular freezing temperatures.

Flora

The ecoregion's natural vegetation is humid evergreen rain forests. The forest types include alluvial rain forest on lowland plains, hill forests at the foot of the mountains, montane forests above 1000 meters, upper montane forests, and high mountain forests below the tree line. The highest peaks of the Owen Stanley Range are home to sub-alpine grasslands and shrublands, which are included in the separate Central Range sub-alpine grasslands ecoregion. Distinctive plant genera of southeastern Papuan region include '' Magodendron'', '' Anthorrhiza'', '' Kairoa'', and '' Cephalohibiscus''.

Fauna

There are 138 species of mammals in the ecoregion, mostly

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). 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 birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s, and murid rodents. Seven mammal species are

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 ...

: broad-striped dasyure (''Paramurexia rothschildi''), giant bandicoot (''Peroryctes broadbenti''), Papuan bandicoot (''Microperoryctes papuensis''), New Guinea big-eared bat (''Pharotis imogene''), '' Chiruromys lamia'', Long-nosed mosaic-tailed rat (''Melomys levipes''), and Van Deusen's rat (''Rattus vandeuseni''). The ecoregion is home to 510 species of birds. The largest bird in the ecoregion is the flightless

southern cassowary The southern cassowary (''Casuarius casuarius''), also known as double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary, or two-wattled cassowary, is a large Flightless bird, flightless black bird, found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and northeastern ...

(''Casuarius casuarius''), which lives in the lowland forests. Four species are endemic to the ecoregion – the brown-headed paradise kingfisher (''Tanysiptera danae''), grey-headed munia (''Lonchura caniceps''), streaked bowerbird (''Amblyornis subalaris''), and eastern parotia (''Parotia helenae''). 20 species of frogs and 10 species of lizards are endemic to the Bowutu Ultramafic Belt.

Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 830 km², or 1%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Over 80% of the ecoregion 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

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External links

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Southeastern Papuan Rainforests (One Earth)

References

{{reflist Australasian ecoregions Ecoregions of New Guinea Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea Montane forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests