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 needleleafs 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 land.
More than half of the Dominican Republic is covered with mountains. The highest peak in the Caribbean is more than 10,000 feet high, from the mountain of Pico Duarte. The Pico Duarte is a part of the Cordillera Central, which is the largest and highest range in the Dominican Republic. This range sits in the western central portion of the country, and extends from the Haitian border southeast all the way to the Caribbean Sea. (Important Landforms in the Dominican Republic. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http:// traveltips. satoday. com/important-landforms-dominicanrepublic-106774. html) The Cordillera Oriental is an extension of the mountains to the west of them, being much lower and made of hills and valleys. The highest elevation is no more than 2,600 feet.
Just south of the Cordillera Oriental, the land progressively loses elevation through a sequence of limestone terraces until the land eventually meets with the Caribbean Sea. (Important Landforms in the Dominican Republic. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://traveltips. satoday. com/importantlandforms-dominican-republic-106774. html) Not many natural lakes exist in the Dominican Republic, but one lake is Lake Enriquillo the Caribbean’s largest lake, and also the area’s lowest. Lake Enriquillo is in the country’s far southwest corner, and it lies more than 125 feet below sea level. Numerous rivers flow from out of the country’s mountains. Yaque del Norte is the largest river, and it flows northward into the Atlantic Ocean. The Dominican Republic has around 1,000 miles of beaches.
The Dominican Republic also has offshore islands, the two largest being Saona and Beata. (Geography of the Dominican Republic by Hispaniola. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://www. hispaniola. com/dominican_republic/info/ nature_georaphy. php) The Dominican Republic has many different natural resources. One natural resource is their mineral resources. They produce minerals such as bauxite, cement, gypsum, limestone, marble, salt, gravel, sand, steel, and the most important, nickel.
They also have some deposits of gold, silver, zinc, and copper, gold being the most important. (Dominican Republic in Pictures. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from https://books. google. com/books? id=yaN7DCNHGUC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=biomes in the dominican republic&source=bl&ots=h-5yUnwvy&sig=JhZcd3JZK7bXnchYcr8z0h-1qwU&hl=en&sa=X&v ed=0CDsQ6AEwB20VChMjJTK9cnDyAIVA3ceChOriQ3v#v=onepa ge&q=biomes in the Dominican) Their most significant natural resource however, is their land. 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? d=yaN7DcNHGUC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=biomes in the dominican republic&source=bl&ots=h-5yUnwvy&sig=JhZcd3JZK7bXnchYcr8z0h-1qwU&hl=en&sa=X&v ed=0CDsQ6AEwB20VCHMIJTK9cnDyAIVA3ceChOriQ3v#v=onepa ge&q=biomes in the Dominican) The Dominican Republic also has many aquatic resources. Their beaches are good attractions for tourists, their lakes have different ports for transporting goods, and they have much oceanic life they can make profit from. Tourism is really big in the Dominican Republic. Tourism currently contains 13% of GDP and contributes around 29% of their total export earnings.
Tourism depends greatly on the quality of water resources and the coastal environment. The tourism industry is threatened by the lack of the water and sewerage services (the environmental pollution that’s caused by poor management and disposal of sewage as well as solid waste). There are also many valuable ports to bring in imports and send out exports. Some major ports include Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata. The people of the Dominican Republic also have access to fish life and coral reefs in order to sell fish and different aquatic animals to other countries, tourists as well as people in their own country.