The Importance Of Biomes In The Dominican Republic

The island of the Dominican Republic has a wide range of biodiversity due to its isolation, tourists bringing in nonnative fauna and flora, and most of all due to the range of biomes within their country. The natural biomes that occur in the Dominican Republic vary from very dry biomes to very wet biomes. The most common biome in the Dominican Republic is subtropical coniferous forests, due to low levels of precipitation and adequate temperature variability. These trees have needle-leafs in order to adapt to drought. This type of biome shares some of the flora and fauna common to tropical and subtropical savannas, dry broadleaf forests, as well as moist broadleaf forests. The understory is composed of diverse vegetation made of shrubs and small trees. Many different species of migratory birds and butterflies spend their winters in this biome.
The Dominican Republic has such a wide variety of terrestrial biomes. They have rainforests, temperate forests, temperate grasslands, alpines, chaparrals, and a tiny bit of desert
The mild climate and very fertile soil has made them a very industrious agricultural nation. Many valuable trees that live on the land are also resourceful to the people of the Dominican Republic, such as mahogany, satinwood, juniper, and pine. Unfortunately though, logging as well as farming has destroyed much of the Dominican Republic’s native forests. The deforestation of these areas has caused a loss in soil fertility, coastal damage, and erosion of the top soil. Ecologists believe that there has been almost a 90 percent overall loss of native forests over time. (Dominican Republic in Pictures. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://books.google.com/books?id=yaN7DcNHGrUC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=biomes in the dominican republic&source=bl&ots=-h-5yUnwvy&sig=JhZcd3JZK7bXnchYcr8z0h-1qWU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwB2oVChMIjJTK9cnDyAIVA3ceCh0riQ3v#v=onepage&q=biomes in the