The Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp 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 southern
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 includes the extensive swamp forests of southern and western New Guinea.
Geography
New Guinea is home to extensive swamp forests. These forests are permanently waterlogged or seasonally inundated during the rainy season. The Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests extend from the western
Bird's Head Peninsula
The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: , , meaning Bird's Head in Indonesian and Dutch) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai'') is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indones ...
to 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 ...
in the southeast. The forests lie in the lower reaches of the rivers that drain New Guinea's highlands. The most extensive swamp forests are in the basin of the
Fly River
The Fly River is the third longest river on the island of New Guinea, after the Sepik and Mamberamo, with a total length of . It is the largest by volume of discharge in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its catchment, an ...
.
The
Southern New Guinea lowland rain forests and
Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests ecoregions occupy the adjacent lowlands. Near the coast the freshwater swamp forests transition to
New Guinea mangroves as the waters become brackish or salt.
Climate
The ecoregion has a humid
tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of or higher in the coolest month, featuring hot te ...
.
Flora
The freshwater swamp forests support diverse habitats, from open water to grass swamps of several types (dominated by ''
Leersia
''Leersia'' is a genus of plants in the grass family which includes species known generally as cutgrasses.
The genus is widespread across many countries on all the inhabited continents.
It was named for the German botanist Johann Daniel Leers ...
'', ''
Saccharum
''Saccharum'' is a genus of tall perennial plants of the broomsedge tribe within the grass family.
The genus is widespread across tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, the Americas, and assorted ocean ...
-
Phragmites
''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial plant, perennial reed (plant), reed Poaceae, grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world.
Taxonomy
The World Checklist of Selected Plant Famili ...
'', ''
Pseudoraphis'', or mixed swamps with no dominant plant), swamp savannas (''
Melaleuca
''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...
''-dominated or mixed), swamp woodlands (dominated by
sago palm (''Metroxylon sagu''), ''
Pandanus
''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Common names include pandan, screw palm and screw pine. The genus is classified ...
'', or mixed), and swamp forests dominated by ''
Campnosperma,
Terminalia
Terminalia may refer to:
* Terminalia (festival)
Terminalia () was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Terminus, who presided over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between propert ...
'', or ''Melaleuca''.
Fauna
The ecoregion is home to fifty mammal species, including
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 ...
s,
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. There is one
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 ...
mammal species, the
Fly River water rat (''Leptomys signatus'').
The ecoregion has 339 species of birds, including resident and
migratory birds
Bird migration is a seasonal movement of birds between breeding and wintering grounds that occurs twice a year. It is typically from north to south or from south to north. Migration is inherently risky, due to predation and mortality.
The ...
. The ecoregion's lakes and wetlands support large populations of water birds.
Protected areas
A 2017 assessment found that 8,583 km², or 9%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Over 80% of the ecoregion has relatively intact vegetation.
[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]
/ref>
External links
*
References
{{reflist
Australasian ecoregions
Ecoregions of Indonesia
Ecoregions of New Guinea
Ecoregions of Papua New Guinea
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests