Location of the nine 1-ha plots in the North Province of New Caledonia (SW Pacific)
    Home » What makes New Caledonian rainforests so different?
    Annals of Botany

    What makes New Caledonian rainforests so different?

    botanyone
    February 13, 2018
    1 min read

    Rainforests in the Southwest Pacific can be highly diverse, even on a global scale, displaying higher species richness than African rainforests.

    The biodiversity hotspot of New Caledonia is globally renowned for the diversity and endemism of its flora. Ibanez et al. compare the composition, the diversity and the structure of nine 1-ha plots of New Caledonian rainforests with fourteen 1-ha plots located across other tropical rainforests in Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

    Location of the nine 1-ha plots in the North Province of New Caledonia (SW Pacific)
    Location of the nine 1-ha plots in the North Province of New Caledonia (SW Pacific). Protected areas are ‘wilderness areas’ (IUCN category Ib). Am. = Amoss, Ao. = Aoupinié, Ar. = Arago, At. = Atéu, Bo. = Bouirou, F. P. = Forêt Plate, Ji. = Jiève, Gu. = La Guen and Ti. = Tiwaé.

    This provides the first such overview for the Southwest Pacific region. Rainforests of this region are highly diverse, even on a global scale. High stem densities, endemism and abundance of tree ferns are characteristics of New Caledonian rainforests.

    FacebookX

    botanyone

    The Annals of Botany Office is based at the University of Oxford.

    View all posts

    You may also like

    Read this in your language

    The Week in Botany

    On Monday mornings we send out a newsletter of the links that have been catching the attention of our readers on Twitter and beyond. You can sign up to receive it below.

    @BotanyOne on Mastodon

    Loading Mastodon feed...

    Audio


    Archive