Galapagos Environment Shaped by Fire and Water Isolated by vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean, the Galpagos archipelago

straddle s the equator 1000km west of South America and sits entirely within the tropics. The many islands that make up the archipelago range in size from the largest, 1 30km-long Isabela, to the numerous islets and rocks that sit only a few metres a bove sea level. The entire area is volcanic in origin and the main islands are t he tips of vast submarine volcanoes, some now weathered and extinct but others, such as Fernandina and Isabela, among the most active volcanic areas on earth. I n 1968 Fernandina's caldera floor plummeted 350m, and as this book was going to press Volcn La Cumbre erupted again. Volcn Cerro Azul on Isabela erupted as recent ly as 1998, and uplifts continue to reshape coastlines. No island appears to be more than five million years old and the newest are less than a million years ol d. Fernandina, one of the youngest, is the largest pristine island on earth, wit h no human habitation or introduced animals or plants. Evidence of volcanic acti vity, such as lava flows and cratered tuff cones, can be seen everywhere, althou gh a few islands, such as Santa F, are slabs of basaltic rock uplifted from the s ea floor. Equatorial climates usually show little seasonal variation, but complex oceanic currents around the Galpagos Islands drive weather and rainfall patterns into two recognizable seasons that influence vegetation and wildlife. Exact timings vary , but the warm waters of the Nio Flow move south in December or January, causing a rise in air temperature and the build-up of large cumulus clouds around the is lands. The 'warm' season lasts until about May and this is when 90% of the annua l rain falls, especially over the high islands. By April the southeast trade win ds start to push the Humboldt Current north from the coast of Per, and a cooler, dry season that sets in by June lasts for the rest of the year. The Humboldt's c ool, rich waters bring vast food resources to the Galpagos and seabird colonies r each their peak of activity in the dry. Precipitation in the cooler months most often takes the form of a light, misty rain known as "gara". However, rainfall varies from place to place and year to year. More rain falls o n high islands than low ones, and more falls at high altitude than sea level. Th e northern sides of islands lie in the rain shadow of prevailing southeasterly w inds and consequently receive less rain than the Southern side of the same Islan d. In some years, heavy rains begin in late December and last until May; in othe r years there may be nothing more than a few light showers for the entire wet se ason. The heaviest and most extensive rains fall during El Nio years. From Rocky Barrens to Lush Peaks In the short span of geological time since the various islands were formed, they have been transformed from barren, sterile lava flows into complex vegetation c ommunities with many | unique species. Known as succession, the process can take millennia, although it often happens much more quickly, depending on factors su ch as climate, geology and rainfall; it continues all over the islands today. Th us, a visitor can step ashore onto brittle, barely cooled lava and see pioneerin g lava cactus and I mangroves at the sea's edge. Both eventually change conditio ns enough on the soil for other, less specialized plants to take hold, and a few metres inland progressively richer soils support bands of distinctive vegetatio n that climax in the dense greenery of the highlands. Terrestrial plant communit ies change in composition with altitude and can be broadly divided into the arid , transitional and moist zones; the moist zone is usually further divided into t hree or four categories (see p54). The number of zones found on each island depe nds on its elevation and therefore climate. All of the small islands and the low lands j of the larger islands are covered by the arid zone, but moist forest gro ws only on high islands such as Santa Cruz, Isabela And Floreana; on some island

s, much of the fertile moist zone I has been cleared. A large percentage of the flora has affinities with that of ; tropical South and Central America, and some species resemble i plants that now occur only in the West Indies. The first plant colonists were most probably tiny seeds light enoug h to be carried by the wind and some 30% of species appear to have arrived in th is way. About 60% of all species were carried to the islands by birds, either st uck to their feet or feathers, or ingested Al food elsewhere and deposited with their droppings, and the rest drifted by sea. Approximately 750 species of vasc ular plant have been catalogued to date in the Galpagos, and new species and subs pecies are still being described. More than j 540 species are indigenous and of these 170 are endemic; nearly 200 are weeds or plants introduced by humans. Some land plants are almost as distinctive as the well-known animals and, like t hem, show excellent examples of adaptive I radiation (see No Situations Vacant, p18). Of particular note I mo the 20 species of scalesia, the so-called tree dai sies, which vary from small shrubs to 15m-tall woody trees that grow in dense st ands akin to cloud forest. The six species of opuntia cactus (prickly pear) have coevolved with animals as varied as cactus-finches, carpenter bees and land igu anas, and have also radiated into diverse forms.