Ecoregions of New Guinea

New Guinea, lying within the tropics and with extensive mountain areas, comprises a wide range of ecoregions. These include rainforests, grasslands and mangrove. Terrestrial ecoregions New Guinea is in the Australasian realm, which also includes the islands of Wallacea to the west, the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu to the east, and Australia and New Zealand. Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Island Press; Washington, DC.

Sea levels were lower during the Ice Ages, which exposed the shallow continental shelf and connected New Guinea to Australia into a single land mass. Several nearby islands, including the Aru Islands, most of the Raja Ampat Islands, and Yapen, were also connected to the mainland, which allowed the flora and fauna of New Guinea and the continental shelf islands to mix.Jared Diamond, K. David Bishop "Origins of the upland avifauna of Yapen Island, New Guinea region," Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 140(4), 423-448, (9 December 2020)

Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Central Range montane rain forests Huon Peninsula montane rain forests Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests Northern New Guinea montane rain forests Southeastern Papuan rain forests Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests Southern New Guinea lowland rain forests Vogelkop–Aru lowland rain forests Vogelkop montane rain forests

Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands

Montane grasslands and shrublands

Central Range sub-alpine grasslands

Mangrove New Guinea mangroves

Freshwater ecoregions Vogelkop–Bomberai New Guinea North Coast New Guinea Central Mountains Southwest New Guinea - Trans-Fly Lowland Papuan Peninsula

Marine ecoregions The oceans around New Guinea are part of the Central Indo-Pacific marine realm. The realm is divided into marine provinces, which are further divided into marine ecoregions.Mark D. Spalding, Helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson, Zach A. Ferdaña, Max Finlayson, Benjamin S. Halpern, Miguel A. Jorge, Al Lombana, Sara A. Lourie, Kirsten D. Martin, Edmund McManus, Jennifer Molnar, Cheri A. Recchia, James Robertson, Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas, BioScience, Volume 57, Issue 7, July 2007, Pages 573–583, https://doi.org/10.1641/B570707 Western Coral Triangle province Papua Eastern Coral Triangle province Bismarck Sea Solomon Sea Southeast Papua New Guinea Sahul Shelf province Gulf of Papua Arafura Sea

Ecoregions of New Guinea

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