Jamaican dry forests
Jamaican dry forests | |
---|---|
Ecology | |
Realm | Neotropical |
Biome | tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests |
Borders | Jamaican moist forests |
Geography | |
Area | 2,255 km2 (871 sq mi) |
Country | Jamaica |
Conservation | |
Conservation status | Critical/Endangered[1] |
Protected | 459 km2 (20%)[2] |
The Jamaican dry forests is a tropical dry forest ecoregion located in southern Jamaica.
Geography
The ecoregion covers three discontinuous areas of Jamaica. The largest area extends along the south coast of the island, from Morant Point, Jamaica's easternmost point, to Black River Bay in the west. Kingston, Jamaica's capital and largest city, is in the ecoregion. Smaller areas of dry forest occur around Negril at the western end of the island, and east of Montego Bay along the island's northern shore.
The most extensive dry forests are in the limestone hills of the Hellshire Hills in Saint Catherine Parish and Portland Ridge in Clarendon Parish in southern Jamaica. These areas are dry because they lie in the orographic rain shadow of the Blue Mountains. The Hellshire Hills have been described as one of the last substantial areas of primary, undisturbed dry forest in the Caribbean.[3] Much of the remaining Jamaican dry forest lies within the Portland Bight Protected Area[4] which includes the Portland Ridge and the Hellshire Hills, which are the best-studied areas of Jamaican dry forest.
Flora
The Jamaican dry forests are dominated by plants in the
Fauna
The endangered
References
- ^ "Jamaican dry forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
- ^ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, pp. 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b. [1]
- ^ Vogel P., Nelson R. and Kerr R. 1995. Conservation strategy for the Jamaican iguana, Cyclura collie. Contributions to West Indian Herpetology: a Tribute to Albert Schwartz. In:Powell R. and Henderson R.W. (eds), Contributions to Herpetology, Vol. 12. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca, New York, pp. 1–12.
- ^ "Portland Bight Protected Area website". Archived from the original on 2000-10-29. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
- ^ Gentry, A.H. (1995) Diversity and floristic composition of neotropical dry forests. Pp. 146-194 in S.H. Bullock, H.A. Mooney and E. Medina (editors) Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- ^ Espeut P (1999) Portland Bight–Jamaica’s newest protected area. Memorandum Caribbean Coastal Area (CCAM) Foundation.
- ^ Adams, C.D. and M.C. Du Quesnay. 1970. Vegetation. Pp. 49-119 in J.D. Woodley (ed.) Hellshire Hills scientific survey. University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
- ^ McLaren, K.P., M.A. McDonald, J.B. Hall and J.R. Healey. 2005. Predicting species response to disturbance from size class distributions of adults and saplings in a Jamaican tropical dry forest. Plant Ecology 181:69–84