Macaronesia

The name Macaronesia was originally used by Ancient Greek geographers to refer to any islands west of the Strait of Gibraltar. It is derived from the Greek words meaning 'islands of the fortunate' (, ). The term fell out of use until it was revived in 1917 with its current meaning. The name is occasionally misspelled "Macronesia" in false analogy with Micronesia, an unrelated group of archipelagos in the Pacific Ocean whose name is also derived from Greek. == Archipelagos ==

Macaronesia consists of four main archipelagos. In alphabetical order, these are: • : autonomous region of Portugal • : autonomous community of Spain • : sovereign state, a member of the United Nations • (including the Savage Islands): autonomous region of Portugal ==Geography and geology==

from the 1957 eruption of Capelinhos on Faial in the Azores. Macaronesian islands are created by volcanic activity. The islands of Macaronesia are volcanic in origin, and are thought to be the product of several geologic hotspots. and a tropical climate in Cape Verde. In some locations, there are variations in climate due to the rain shadow effect. The laurisilva forests of Macaronesia are a type of mountain cloud forest with relict plant species of a vegetation type that originally covered much of the Mediterranean Basin, when the climate of that region was more humid. These plant species, many of which are endemic, have evolved to adapt to the islands' variable climatic conditions. The Macaronesian islands have a biogeography that is unique in the world. They are home to several distinct plant and animal communities. Notably, the jumping spider genus Macaroeris is named after Macaronesia. Because none of the Macaronesian islands were ever part of any continent, all of the native plants and animals reached the islands via long-distance dispersal. Laurel-leaved forests, called laurisilva, once covered most of the Azores, Madeira, and parts of the Canaries at an altitude of between , the eastern Canaries and Cape Verde being too dry. These forests resemble the ancient forests that covered the Mediterranean Basin and northwestern Africa before the cooling and drying of the ice ages. Trees of the genera Apollonias, Clethra, Dracaena, Ocotea, Persea, and Picconia, which are found in the Macaronesian laurel forests, are also known, from fossil evidence, to have flourished around the Mediterranean before the ice ages. ==Conservation issues==

forest, except in Cape Verde, were protected by EU law in 2001. Much of the original native vegetation has been displaced because of human activity, including felling forests for timber and firewood, clearing vegetation for grazing and agriculture, and introducing foreign plants and animals into the islands. The laurisilva habitat has been reduced to small disconnected pockets. As a result, many of the endemic biota of the islands are now seriously endangered or extinct. Introduced predators – in particular domestic cats, many in feral populations – currently pose one of the most serious threats to the endemic fauna. Even though cats prey mostly on other foreign-introduced mammals, such as rodents and rabbits, the abundance of such prey sustains such a large feline population that it has initiated a so-called hyperpredation process, which further increases that population's negative impact on the number of endemic reptiles and birds. Since 2001, the European Union's conservation efforts, mandated by its Natura 2000 regulations, have resulted in the protection of large stretches of land and sea in the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands, totalling . == See also ==