From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Indomalaya Ecozone was previously called the Oriental region.
It extends from the Makran region of southern Pakistan through the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to lowland southern China, and through Indonesia as far as Java, Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the ecozone boundary named after Alfred Russel Wallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia. Indomalaya also includes the Philippines, lowland Taiwan and Japan's Ryūkyū Islands.
Most of Indomalaya was originally covered by forest, mostly tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, with tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests predominant in much of India and parts of Southeast Asia. The tropical moist forests of Indomalaya are dominated by trees of the dipterocarp family (Dipterocarpaceae).
Malesia is a botanical province which straddles the boundary between Indomalaya and Australasia. It includes the Malay Peninsula and the western Indonesian islands (known as Sundaland), the Philippines, the eastern Indonesian islands, and New Guinea. While the region has much in common botanically, they differ greatly in land animal species; Sundaland shares its fauna with mainland Asia, while the islands east of the Wallace line either lack land mammals, or are home to a land fauna derived from Australia, which includes marsupial mammals and ratite birds.
Two orders of mammals, the colugos (Dermoptera) and treeshrews (Scandentia), are endemic to the ecozone, as are families Craseonycteridae (Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat), Diatomyidae, Platacanthomyidae, Tarsiidae (tarsiers) and Hylobatidae (gibbons). Large mammals characteristic of Indomalaya include the leopard, tigers, water buffalos, Asian Elephant, Indian Rhinoceros, Javan Rhinoceros, Malayan Tapir, orangutans, and gibbons.
Indomalaya has three endemic bird families, the Irenidae (leafbirds and fairy bluebirds), Megalaimidae and Rhabdornithidae (Philippine creepers). Also characteristic are pheasants, pittas, Old World babblers, and flowerpeckers.
The flora of Indomalaya blends elements from the ancient supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwana. Gondwanian elements were first introduced by India, which detached from Gondwana approximately 90 MYA, carrying its Gondwana-derived flora and fauna northward, which included cichlid fish and the flowering plant families Crypteroniaceae and possibly Dipterocarpaceae. India collided with Asia 30-45 MYA, and exchanged species. Later, as Australia-New Guinea drifted north, the collision of the Australian and Asian plates pushed up the islands of Wallacea, which were separated from one another by narrow straits, allowing a botanic exchange between Indomalaya and Australasia. Asian rainforest flora, including the dipterocarps, island-hopped across Wallacea to New Guinea, and several Gondwanian plant families, including podocarps and araucarias, moved westward from Australia-New Guinea into western Malesia and Southeast Asia.
See also:
- List of Indomalaya ecoregions
- Malesia
- Sundaland
- Ecoregions of India
- Ecoregions of the Philippines
[edit] Indomalaya Terrestrial Ecoregions
| Indomalaya Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests edit |
| Andaman Islands rain forests |
India |
| Borneo lowland rain forests |
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia |
| Borneo montane rain forests |
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia |
| Borneo peat swamp forests |
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia |
| Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests |
India |
| Cardamom Mountains rain forests |
Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam |
| Chao Phraya freshwater swamp forests |
Thailand |
| Chao Phraya lowland moist deciduous forests |
Thailand |
| Chin Hills-Arakan Yoma montane forests |
India, Myanmar |
| Christmas and Cocos Islands tropical forests |
Australia |
| Eastern highlands moist deciduous forests |
India |
| Eastern Java-Bali montane rain forests |
Indonesia |
| Eastern Java-Bali rain forests |
Indonesia |
| Greater Negros-Panay rain forests |
Philippines |
| Hainan Island monsoon rain forests |
China |
| Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests |
Bhutan, India, Nepal |
| Irrawaddy freshwater swamp forests |
Myanmar |
| Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests |
Myanmar |
| Jian Nan subtropical evergreen forests |
China |
| Kayah-Karen montane rain forests |
Myanmar, Thailand |
| Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests |
Bangladesh, India |
| Luang Prabang montane rain forests |
Laos |
| Luzon montane rain forests |
Philippines |
| Luzon rain forests |
Philippines |
| Malabar Coast moist forests |
India |
| Maldives-Lakshadweep-Chagos Archipelago tropical moist forests |
British Indian Ocean Territory, India, Maldives |
| Meghalaya subtropical forests |
India |
| Mentawai Islands rain forests |
Indonesia |
| Mindanao montane rain forests |
Philippines |
| Mindanao-Eastern Visayas rain forests |
Philippines |
| Mindoro rain forests |
Philippines |
| Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests |
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar |
| Myanmar coastal rain forests |
Myanmar |
| Nansei Islands subtropical evergreen forests |
Japan |
| Nicobar Islands rain forests |
India |
| North Western Ghats moist deciduous forests |
India |
| North Western Ghats montane rain forests |
India |
| Northern Annamites rain forests |
Laos, Vietnam |
| Northern Indochina subtropical forests |
China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam |
| Northern Khorat Plateau moist deciduous forests |
Laos, Thailand |
| Northern Thailand-Laos moist deciduous forests |
Laos, Thailand |
| Northern Triangle subtropical forests |
Myanmar |
| Northern Vietnam lowland rain forests |
Vietnam |
| Orissa semi-evergreen forests |
India |
| Palawan rain forests |
Philippines |
| Peninsular Malaysian montane rain forests |
Malaysia, Thailand |
| Peninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests |
Malaysia, Thailand |
| Peninsular Malaysian rain forests |
Indonesia, Malaysia |
| Red River freshwater swamp forests |
Vietnam |
| South China Sea Islands |
disputed between China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam |
| South China-Vietnam subtropical evergreen forests |
China, Vietnam |
| South Taiwan monsoon rain forests |
Taiwan |
| South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests |
India |
| South Western Ghats montane rain forests |
India |
| Southern Annamites montane rain forests |
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam |
| Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests |
Indonesia |
| Sri Lanka lowland rain forests |
Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lanka montane rain forests |
Sri Lanka |
| Sulu Archipelago rain forests |
Philippines |
| Sumatran freshwater swamp forests |
Indonesia |
| Sumatran lowland rain forests |
Indonesia |
| Sumatran montane rain forests |
Indonesia |
| Sumatran peat swamp forests |
Indonesia |
| Sundaland heath forests |
Indonesia |
| Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests |
Bangladesh, India |
| Taiwan subtropical evergreen forests |
Taiwan |
| Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests |
Malaysia' Myanmar, Thailand |
| Tonle Sap freshwater swamp forests |
Cambodia, Vietnam |
| Tonle Sap-Mekong peat swamp forests |
Cambodia, Vietnam |
| Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests |
India |
| Western Java montane rain forests |
Indonesia |
| Western Java rain forests |
Indonesia |
[edit] External link
