I’m guessing the biggest reason we’re visiting Tasmania is because of its exceptionally dense and varied biodiversity, both flora and fauna. Tasmania is particularly known for unique endemic plants and animals like many of the marsupial species. Tasmania is able to support so many incredible life forms because of its surprising range of ecological zones, from reefs to atolls to smaller islands, beaches, temperate rainforests, freshwater rivers and lakes, caves, lowland grasslands, and elevated grass and shrublands.
For the most part we’ll be exploring the zones on land, so I’ll expand on them a little further. There are 334 islands of the coast of Tasmania, but only 4 large enough to support significant populations.2 We’ll be visiting Bruny Island, right by Hobart off the southern coast.
The temperate rainforests are found in east and northeast Tasmania, and are home to vast eucalyptus forests, like the one below on Mt. Wellington. As the eastern half of the island is more developed, these forest have been largely destroyed by human activity, particularly Aboriginal burning over the last twelve millennia. In fact, the temperate forests are the biome most altered in Tasmania.5
The rest of the eastern part of Tasmania consists mostly of low, dry grasslands. The western region is more mountainous and contains the largest lakes, including Lake Gordon, Lake King William, Lake St. Clair, the Great Lake, Lake Echo, Lake Burbury, and Lake Mackintosh. The west coast receives the most rainfall (>110 inches annually), and therefore is home to Tasmania’s rainforests. The western half of Tasmania is also where most of the World Heritage Sites are located.
References
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