The Ecology of Sri Lanka is unique, caused by its geographical position and by its geological and climatic history. The island is one of the world's bio-diversity hot-spots. Physical map of the Earth ( Medium) ( Large 2 MB) Geography is the study of the locational and spatial variation of both natural and human phenomena on Earth. ... Geology (from Greek γη- (ge-, the earth) and λογος (logos, word, reason)) is the science and study of the Earth, its composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape it. ...

Sri Lanka was a part of the supercontinent Gondwana(land).

Sri Lanka was once part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, which also included South America, Africa, India and Antarctica. Gondwana began to break up 140 million years ago. The tectonic plate on which Sri Lanka was located, the Indian plate, collided with the Eurasian plate creating the Himalayas. Image File history File links Gondwana (from www. ... Image File history File links Gondwana (from www. ... [HELP! Needs re-writing. ... [HELP! Needs re-writing. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... // Etymology World map showing Africa (geographically) The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — land of the Afri (plural, or Afer singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to modern-day... The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. ... The India or Indian Plate is a minor tectonic plate. ... The Eurasian plate is shown in green on this map. ... Perspective view of the Himalaya and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ...

Sri Lanka was originally part of the Deccan land mass, contiguous with Madagascar. The island was connected, off and on at least 17 times in the past 700,000 years, to India. The Deccan Plateau is a vast plateau in India, encompassing most of Central and Southern India. ...

The Loris, found only in Sri Lanka and South India, is related to the Lemurs of Madagascar. The connection to India led to a commonality of species, e.g. freshwater fish, the now extinct Sri Lankan Gaur (Bibos sinhaleyus) and Lion (Leo leo sinhaleyus).[1] Genera Loris Nycticebus Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine primates of the subfamily Lorinae in family Loridae. ... Families Cheirogaleidae Lemuridae Megaladapidae Indridae Lemurs are part of a class of primates known as prosimians, and make up the infraorder Lemuriformes. ... Binomial name Bos gaurus H. Smith, 1827 The Gaur (Bos gaurus, previously Bibos gauris) is a large, dark-coated ox of the hilly areas of India and Southeast Asia, which may be found wild or domesticated. ... Binomial name Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) The Lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae. ...

Sri Lanka's forests are amongst the most floristically rich in Asia and for some faunal groups, it has the highest density of species diversity in the world. The southwest portion of the island, where the influence of the moisture-bearing southwest monsoon is strongest, is home to the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests. At higher elevations they make the transition to the Sri Lanka montane rain forests. Both these tropical moist forest ecoregions bear strong affinities to those of India's Western Ghats. For the band Monsoon see Sheila Chandra Monsoon in the Vindhya, a mountain chain in central India A monsoon is a periodic wind, especially in the Indian Ocean and southern Asia. ... Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, also known as tropical rain forests, are a tropical and subtropical biome. ... An ecoregion is a relatively large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities. ... Enlarge this map of South India to see details about Western Ghats Nelliampathi mountains, Kerala A view from Ponmudi The Western Ghats or Sahyadri mountains (as they are known in the state of Maharashtra) run along the western edge of Indias Deccan Plateau, and separate the plateau from a...

The northern and eastern portions of the island are considerably drier, lying in the rain shadow of the central highlands. The Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests are a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion, which, like the neighbouring East Deccan dry evergreen forests of India's Coromandel Coast, is characterised by evergreen trees, rather than the dry-season deciduous trees that predominate in most other tropical dry broadleaf forests. // A rain shadow (or more accurately, precipitation shadow) is a dry region on the surface of the Earth that is leeward or behind a mountain with respect to the prevailing wind direction. ... The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. ... The East Deccan dry evergreen forests are an ecoregion of southeastern India. ... This article is about the Coromandel Coast of India. ... A Silver Fir shoot showing three successive years of retained leaves In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant which retains its leaves year-round, with each leaf persisting for more than 12 months. ... Deciduous means temporary or tending to fall off (deriving from the Latin word decidere, to fall off). ...

These forests have been largely cleared for agriculture, timber or grazing, and many of the dry evergreen forests have been degraded to thorn scrub, savanna, or thickets. Several preserves have been established to protect some of Sri Lanka's remaining natural areas. The island has three biosphere reserves, Hurulu (established 1977), Sinharaja (established 1978), and Kanneliya-Dediyagala-Nakiyadeniya (KDN) (established 2004). Savanna is a grassland dotted with trees, and occurs in several types of biomes. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The coastal estuaries are home to mangrove habitats, e.g. the Maduganga river. An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water which has a free connection with the open sea and within which sea water mixes with fresh water. ... Above and below water view at the edge of the mangal Mangrove are woody trees or shrubs that grow in coastal habitats or mangal (Hogarth, 1999), for which the term mangrove swamp also would apply. ... The Maduganga river is a shallow water body in south-west Sri Lanka, which enters the sea at Balapitiya. ...

Sri Lanka is a centre of bird endemism. See Endemic Birds of the Indian Subcontinent for further information. In biology and ecology endemic means exclusively native to a place or biota, in contrast to cosmopolitan or one of various ways of being not native (e. ... This article is actively undergoing a major edit. ...