Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Hawaiian region
References
Images
World map using color coding to show the distribution of major floral kingdoms, subkingdoms, and regions. Key floral kingdoms include Boreal (green), Neotropical (pink), Paleotropical (yellow), South African or Capensic (purple), Australian (orange), and Antarctic (blue). Boundaries for subkingdoms, regions, and divisions are marked with different colored lines, and major regions such as Indoafrican, North American, and Malesian are labeled across continents.
Britannica AI Icon

Hawaiian region

faunal region
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

World map using color coding to show the distribution of major floral kingdoms, subkingdoms, and regions. Key floral kingdoms include Boreal (green), Neotropical (pink), Paleotropical (yellow), South African or Capensic (purple), Australian (orange), and Antarctic (blue). Boundaries for subkingdoms, regions, and divisions are marked with different colored lines, and major regions such as Indoafrican, North American, and Malesian are labeled across continents.
Earth's floral regions Floral kingdoms, subkingdoms, and major regions of the world.

The Hawaiian region is a biogeographic area recognized for its unique flora and fauna, largely due to its extreme isolation. Species that have migrated to Hawaii have evolved in this environment, resulting in many endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. This process is a prime example of adaptive radiation, where a single ancestral lineage diversifies into multiple species to exploit various ecological niches.123

Unfortunately, this isolation also makes native species vulnerable to introduced species and habitat destruction. Many Hawaiian species are now threatened or endangered due to these pressures. Conservation efforts, including the establishment of marine protected areas, aim to safeguard these unique ecosystems.24

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
5 Britannica Sources
  1. Hawaii - Plant and animal life
  2. biogeographic region - Hawaiian region
  3. evolution - Adaptive radiation
  4. conservation - Secondary extinctions
  5. conservation - Habitat protection

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.