The Aru Islands (also Aroe Islands or Kepulauan Aru) are a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. This page is about the geography and history of the island group in Indonesia — for the political entities encompassing the islands, see Maluku (Indonesian province) and North Maluku. ... The number of provinces of Indonesia has tended to increase as new provinces have been split from existing territories. ...

Geography

The islands which? are the easternmost in Maluku province, and are located in the Arafura Sea southwest of New Guinea and north of Australia. The total area of the islands is 8,563 km² (3,306 sq mi). The largest island is Tanahbesar (also called Wokam); Dobo, the chief port of the islands, is on Wamar, just off Tanahbesar. Other main islands are Kola, Kobroor, Maikoor, and Trangan. The main islands rise to low hills, and are separated by meandering channels. The Arafura Sea is the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea. ...

Aru is covered by a mix of tropical moist broadleaf forests, savanna, and mangroves. The Islands lie on the Australia-New Guinea continental shelf, and were connected to Australia and New Guinea by land when sea levels were lower during the ice ages. The flora and fauna of Aru are part of the Australasia ecozone, and closely related to that of New Guinea. Aru is part, together with much of western New Guinea, of the Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests terrestrial ecoregion. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, also known as tropical rain forests, are a tropical and subtropical biome. ... Savanna is a grassland dotted with trees, and occurs in several types of biomes. ... Above and below water view at the edge of the mangal Mangroves are woody trees or shrubs that grow in mangrove habitats or mangal (Hogarth, 1999). ... Australia-New Guinea, also called Meganesia, is made up of the continent of New Guinea and Tasmania. ... The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent, which is covered during interglacial periods such as the one we live in by relatively shallow seas and gulfs. ... Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... The Australasian ecozone includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (including Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian province of Papua), and the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, including the island of Sulawesi, the Moluccan islands (the Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku) and islands of Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba... Ecoregions are defined by the World Wildlife Fund as relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land-use change. Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater...

Economy

Products include sago, coconuts, tobacco, mother of pearl, trepang (an edible sea cucumber, which is dried and cured), tortoiseshell, and bird of paradise plumes. Sago is a starchy, fecula, granular substance used in cooking. ... Binomial name Cocos nucifera L. The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). ... Species N. acuminata N. clevelandii N. forgetiana N. glauca N. knightiana N. langsdorffii N. longiflora N. obtusifolia N. paniculata N. plumbagifolia N. quadrivalvis N. rustica N. × sanderae N. suaveolens N. sylvestris N. tabacum Ref: ITIS 30562 as of 2002-08-28 Tobacco () is a broad-leafed plant of the nightshade... A piece of nacre Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic mixture of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of platy crystals of aragonite and conchiolin (a scleroprotein). ... Orders Subclass Apodacea  Apodida  Molpadiida Subclass Aspidochirotacea  Aspidochirotida  Elasipodida Subclass Dendrochirotacea  Dactylochirotida  Dendrochirotida The sea cucumber is an echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea, with an elongated body and leathery skin. ... For the flowering plant of this name, see Strelitzia Genera Cicinnurus Diphyllodes Epimachus Lophorina Manucodia Paradisaea Parotia Ptiloris Seleucidis Lesser Bird of Paradise Paradisaea minor (c)Roderick Eime The birds of paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes, found in Oceania. ...

History

The islands were colonized by the Dutch after 1623. This article refers to a colony in politics and history. ... Events August 6 - Pope Urban VIII is elected to the Papacy. ...

Recently, Aru Islands have been a new residence separated from Kabupaten Maluku Tenggara, with the capital : Dobo.

Demographics

The inhabitants are mixed Malay and Papuan stock. Fourteen languages - Barakai, Batuley, Dobel, Karey, Koba, Kola, Kompane, Lola, Lorang, Manombai, Mariri, East Tarangan, West Tarangan, and Ujir - are indigenous to Aru. They belong to the Central Malayo-Polynesian languages, and are related to the other languages of Maluku, Nusa Tenggara, and Timor. Ambonese Malay is also spoken on Wamar. All are members of the Austronesian language family. Three-quarter scale bronze sculptures 19th C. Malay people, Indonesia, Borneo. ... Papua is: Another name for New Guinea Papua (Australian territory): A former Australian territory comprising the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea, now the southern part of Papua New Guinea Papua (Indonesian province): An Indonesian province comprising the western half of the island of New Guinea Related Words... Koba can refer to: A Georgian folk hero. ... Kola can refer to: Kola nut Kola Peninsula, in the far north of Russia Kola Island, part of the Aru Islands of Indonesia This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For other meanings, see Lola (disambiguation) Lola Racing Cars (also Lola Cars International) is a racing car engineering company founded by Eric Broadley and based in Huntingdon, United Kingdom. ... This page is about the geography and history of the island group in Indonesia — for the political entities encompassing the islands, see Maluku (Indonesian province) and North Maluku. ... Categories: Islands of Indonesia | Southeast Asia geography stubs | Indonesia geography stubs ... Timor is an island at the south of the Malay Archipelago, divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, part of the Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur with the surface of 11,883 sq mi/ 30,777 km². The name is a variant of timur, Malay... The Austronesian languages are a family of languages widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ...

See also

• Islands of Indonesia