Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
saying to a friend, “May I present Dr. Erik Leonard Ekman, member of the
Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Smithsonian Institution,
and the world's greatest authority on the Caribbean fl ora” (Roger Lundin,
pers. comm., 2002).
Many of the vegetation types of the Antilles at the level of formations are
comparable to those described for North America and Mexico. Their ar-
rangement refl ects the physiography of the islands, which in most instances
consists of a coastal plain rising to a central cordillera. It also refl ects
the distribution of rainfall brought from the east by the trade winds. The
easternmost islands, and the northern side of each island, are mostly wet,
while the western ends of the islands and the southern coasts are drier from
the rain shadow created by the central cordilleras. There are no deserts
because rainfall is too high even in the driest parts, and the island envi-
ronment reduces evapotranspiration. This does not mean there is no arid
vegetation, but its occurrence is usually due to edaphic conditions in the
areas of lowest rainfall, and these arid-habitat communities are expanding
as a result of abusive land use. The driest vegetation is on Gonâve Island
of western Haiti (MAP 500 mm). Haiti is half the size of the Dominican
Republic but it has about the same population (7 million) making it one of
the most densely populated countries in Latin America. The environmental
destruction is almost complete, and it is estimated that only about 1 percent
of the natural vegetation remains (fi g. 2.29). There are clear and obvious
consequences when we consider the land as Columbus found it. As his son
Ferdinand recorded in The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus : “The
sky, air, and climate were just the same as in other places; every afternoon
there was a rain squall that lasted for about an hour. The admiral writes
that he attributes this to the great forests and trees of that country” (Cohen
1992, 181-82; see also Keen 1992).
A General Awakening?
Look here, in the past these mountains were densely covered with forests, and it
rained a lot. You must know, May ended as it had begun, rain, rain, rain . . . ! During
May it rained all the time. Not just once a day, seven and eight times a day torren-
tial rains came down from the sky. In the past moss covered the walls of huts and
sometimes good water came from the roofs. There was plenty of water. It rained
day and night. It is dif erent today. There is a lot missing here, due to the lack of
water. I do not know what is wrong today.
—ROSA ENCARANCIÓN, age eighty-fi ve, quoted in
Eberhard Bolay, The Dominican Republic , 1997
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