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In biology, '''Neotropical''', often shortened to the '''Neotropics''', refers to one of the major ecozones in the World. In zoogeography the region includes entire South America, the Caribbean, southern Florida and Central America north to an imaginary line through Mexico (''see map''). The Neotropics is limited by similarities in fauna or flora, not by temperatures (e.g. to the tropics). It has distinct fauna and flora from the Nearctic because its long separation from the northern continent.

When used to describe a floristic province, the Neotropics excludes southernmost South America, which instead is placed in the Antarctic Kingdom.
This ecozone includes South and Central America, the Mexican lowlands, the Caribbean islands, and southern Florida, because these regions share a large number of plant and animal groups. It is sometimes used as a synonym for the tropical area of South America, although the ecozone also includes temperate southern South America.
The Neotropic includes more tropical rainforest (tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests) than any other ecozone, extending from southern Mexico through Central America and northern South America to southern Brazil, including the vast Amazon Rainforest. These rainforest ecoregions are one of the most important reserves of biodiversity on Earth. Extensive deforestation in the late 20th century has reduced this diversity to a degree.
These rainforests are also home to a diverse array of indigenous peoples, who to varying degrees persist in their autonomous and traditional cultures and subsistence within this environment. The number of these peoples who are as yet relatively untouched by external influences continues to decline significantly, however, along with the near-exponential expansion of urbanization, roads, pastoralism and forest industries which encroach on their customary lands and environment. Nevertheless amidst these declining circumstances this vast "reservoir" of human diversity continues to survive, albeit much depleted. In South America alone some 350-400 indigenous languages and dialects are still living (down from an estimated 1,500 at the time of first European contact), in about 37 distinct language families and a further number of unclassified and isolate languages. Many of these languages and their cultures are also endangered. Accordingly, conservation in the Neotropic zone is a hot political concern, and raises many arguments about development versus indigenous versus ecological rights and access to / ownership of natural resources.

Contents

Major ecological regions

Amazonia

Caribbean

Central America

Central Andes

Eastern South America

Northern Andes

Orinoco

Southern South America

History

Endemic animals and plants

Animals

Plants

Neotropic Terrestrial Ecoregions

External links

Reference

Major ecological regions

The WWF subdivides the ecozone into 'bioregions', defined 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)."

Amazonia

Caribbean

Central America

Central Andes

Eastern South America

Eastern South America includes the Caatinga xeric shrublands of northeastern Brazil, and the broad Cerrado grasslands and savannas of the Brazilian Plateau. The Caatingas and Cerrado separate the diverse Atlantic forests from the forests of Amazonia.

Northern Andes

Orinoco

Southern South America

The temperate forest ecoregions of southwestern South America, including the temperate rain forests of the Valdivian temperate rain forests and Magellanic subpolar forests ecoregions, and the Juan Fernandez Islands and Desventuradas Islands, are a refuge for the ancient Antarctic flora, which includes trees like the southern beech (''Nothofagus''), podocarps, the alerce (''Fitzroya cupressoides''), and Araucaria pines like the monkey-puzzle tree (''Araucaria araucana''). These magnificent rainforests are endangered by extensive logging and their replacement by fast-growing non-native pines and eucalyptus.

History

South America was originally part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, which included Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand, and Antarctica, and the Neotropic shares many plant and animal lineages with these other continents, including Marsupial mammals and the Antarctic flora. After the final breakup of the Gondwana, South America drifted north and west, and was later joined with North America by the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, which allowed a biotic exchange between the two continents, the Great American Interchange. South American species like the ancestors of the Virginia Opossum (''Didelphis virginiana'') and the armadillo moved into North America, and North Americans like the ancestors of South America's camelids, including the llama (''Lama glama''), moved south. The long-term effect of the exchange was the extinction of many South American species, mostly by outcompetition by northern species.

Endemic animals and plants

Animals

Thirty-one bird families are endemic to the Neotropic ecozone, over twice the number of any other ecozone. They include rheas, tinamous, curassows, and toucans. Bird families originally unique to the Neotropics include hummingbirds (family Trochilidae) and wrens (family Troglodytidae).
Mammal groups originally unique to the Neotropics include:

★ Order ''Xenarthra'': anteaters, sloths, and armadillos

★ New World monkeys

★ Caviomorpha rodents, including capybaras and guinea pigs, and chinchillas

★ American opossums (order ''Didelphimorphia'') and shrew opossums (order ''Paucituberculata'')
Examples of groups that are entirely or mainly restricted to the Neotropical region include

★ New World Monkeys

★ Sloths

★ Tinamous

★ Hummingbirds

★ Toucans

★ Ovenbirds

★ Antbirds

★ Tanagers

★ Caimans

★ New World Coral Snakes

★ Poison Dart Frogs

★ Gonyleptidae

Plants

Plant families that originated in the Neotropic include Bromeliaceae, Cannaceae, and Heliconiaceae.
Plant species originally unique to the Neotropic include:

★ Potato (''Solanum tuberosum'')

★ Tomato (''Solanum lycopersicum'')

★ Cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''), source of cocoa and chocolate

★ Maize (''Zea mays'')

Neotropic Terrestrial Ecoregions

External links

★ Map of the ecozones

★ Eco-Index, a bilingual searchable reference of conservation and research projects in the Neotropics; a service of the Rainforest Alliance

Reference

★ Cox, C. Barry; Peter D. Moore (1985). ''Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach (Fourth Edition).'' Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.

★ Dinerstein, Eric; David Olson; Douglas J. Graham; et al. (1995). ''A Conservation Assessment of the Terrestrial Ecoregions of Latin America and the Caribbean.'' World Bank, Washington DC.

★ Schultz, J.: The Ecozones of the World, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2n ed. 2005. ISBN 3540200142

★ Udvardy, M. D. F. (1975). ''A classification of the biogeographical provinces of the world''. IUCN Occasional Paper no. 18. Morges, Switzerland: IUCN.