Indomalaya ecozone
201211
225179544
2008-07-12T08:58:43Z
Jonathan Cardy
4071608
disambig Buffalo
The '''Indomalaya ecozone''' is one of the eight [[ecozone]]s that cover the planet's land surface. It extends across most of [[South Asia|South]] and [[Southeast Asia]] and into the southern parts of [[East Asia]].
[[Image:Ecozone Indomalaya.svg|thumb|The Indomalaya Ecozone]]
Previously known as the ''Oriental Region'' by [[biogeography|biogeographers]], Indomalaya extends from [[Afghanistan]] and [[Pakistan]] through the [[Indian subcontinent]] and [[Southeast Asia]] to lowland southern [[China]], and through [[Indonesia]] as far as [[Java (island)|Java]], [[Bali]], and [[Borneo]], east of which lies the [[Wallace line]], the ecozone boundary named after [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] which separates Indomalaya from [[Australasia ecozone|Australasia]]. Indomalaya also includes the [[Philippines]], lowland [[Taiwan]], and [[Japan]]'s [[Ryukyu 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).
==Major ecological regions==
The [[World Wildlife Fund]] (WWF) divides Indomalaya into three bioregions, which it defines as "geographic clusters of ecoregions that may span several habitat types, but have strong biogeographic affinities, particularly at taxonomic levels higher than the species level (genus, family)."
===Indian Subcontinent===
The Indian Subcontinent bioregion covers most of [[India]], [[Pakistan]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Nepal]], [[Bhutan]], and [[Sri Lanka]]. The [[Hindu Kush]], [[Karakoram]], [[Himalaya]], and [[Patkai]] ranges bound the bioregion on the northwest, north, and northeast; these ranges were formed by the collision of the northward-drifting Indian subcontinent with Asia beginning 45 million years ago. The Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalaya are a major biogeographic boundary between the subtropical and tropical flora and fauna of the Indian subcontinent and the temperate-climate [[Palearctic]] ecozone.
===Indochina===
The Indochina bioregion includes most of mainland [[Southeast Asia]], including [[Myanmar]], [[Thailand]], [[Laos]], [[Vietnam]], and [[Cambodia]], as well as the subtropical forests of southern [[China]].
===Sunda shelf and the Philippines===
{{main|Sundaland}}
{{main|Ecoregions of the Philippines}}
[[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 Malesia has much in common botanically, the portions east and west of the [[Wallace Line]] 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.
==History==
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 (unit)|MYA]], carrying its Gondwana-derived flora and fauna northward, which included [[cichlid]] fish and the [[flowering plant]] [[family (biology)|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 ecozone|Australasia]]. Asian rainforest flora, including the dipterocarps, island-hopped across Wallacea to New Guinea, and several Gondwanian plant families, including [[podocarp]]s and [[araucaria]]s, moved westward from Australia-New Guinea into western Malesia and Southeast Asia.
==Flora and fauna==
Two orders of mammals, the [[colugo]]s (Dermoptera) and [[treeshrew]]s (Scandentia), are [[endemic (ecology)|endemic]] to the ecozone, as are families Craseonycteridae ([[Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat]]), [[Diatomyidae]], [[Platacanthomyidae]], Tarsiidae ([[tarsier]]s) and Hylobatidae ([[gibbon]]s). Large mammals characteristic of Indomalaya include the [[leopard]], [[tiger]]s, [[Bubalus|water buffalo]]s, [[Asian Elephant]], [[Indian Rhinoceros]], [[Javan Rhinoceros]], [[Malayan Tapir]], [[orangutan]]s, and [[gibbon]]s.
Indomalaya has three endemic bird families, the Irenidae ([[leafbird]]s and [[fairy bluebird]]s), [[Megalaimidae]] and Rhabdornithidae ([[Philippine creeper]]s). Also characteristic are [[pheasant]]s, [[Pitta (bird)|pitta]]s, [[Old World babbler]]s, and [[flowerpecker]]s.
==See also==
:[[Malesia]]
:[[Sundaland]]
:[[Ecoregions of India]]
:[[Ecoregions of the Philippines]]
==Indomalaya terrestrial ecoregions==
{{Indomalaya tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests}}
{{Indomalaya tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests}}
{{Indomalaya tropical and subtropical coniferous forests}}
{{Indomalaya temperate broadleaf and mixed forests}}
{{Indomalaya temperate coniferous forests}}
{{Indomalaya tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands}}
{{Indomalaya flooded grasslands and savannas}}
{{Indomalaya montane grasslands and shrublands}}
{{Indomalaya deserts and xeric shrublands}}
{{Indomalaya mangrove}}
{{Terrestrial_biomes}}
{{Ecozones}}
==External links==
*{{commons-inline|Indomalaya}}
*[http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/ecoregions/maps/index.cfm Map of the ecozones]
==References==
*Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Island Press; Washington, DC.
[[Category:Indomalaya]]
[[Category:Biogeography]]
[[Category:Ecozones]]
[[Category:Natural history of Indonesia]]
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[[pl:Kraina orientalna]]
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