Macaronesia

Archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean

Not to be confused with Micronesia.

24°15′24″N 22°28′16″W﻿ / ﻿24.25667°N 22.47111°W﻿ / 24.25667; -22.47111

Macaronesia

Macaronesia (Portuguese: Macaronésia; Spanish: Macaronesia) is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of North Africa and Europe.[1][2] Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands, which were formed by seamounts on the ocean floor whose peaks have risen above the ocean's surface.[3]

Each of the archipelagos is a distinct political entity: the Azores and Madeira are autonomous regions of Portugal, the Canary Islands is an autonomous community of Spain, while Cape Verde is a sovereign state and member of the United Nations.[4][5][6] Politically, the islands belonging to Portugal and Spain are parts of the European Union, while Cape Verde is a member of the African Union. Geologically, most of Macaronesia is part of the African tectonic plate. The Azores are located in the triple junction between the Eurasian, African, and North American plates.[Note 1][7][8]

In one biogeographical system, the Cape Verde archipelago is in the Afrotropical realm while the other three archipelagos are in the Palearctic realm. According to the European Environment Agency, the three archipelagos within the European Union constitute a unique bioregion, known as the Macaronesian Biogeographic Region.[9] The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions places the whole of Macaronesia in its botanical continent of Africa.[10]

In 2022, Macaronesia had an estimated combined population of 3,222,054 people; 2,172,944 (67%) in the Canary Islands, 561,901 (17%) in Cape Verde, 250,769 (8%) in Madeira, and 236,440 (7%) in the Azores.[11][12][13]

## Etymology

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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' (μακάρων νῆσοι, makárōn nēsoi). The term fell out of use until it was revived in 1917 with its current meaning.[14]

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

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Further information: List of islands in Macaronesia

The flags of the Macaronesian archipelagos

Macaronesia consists of four main archipelagos. In alphabetical order, these are:[10]

* Azores: autonomous region of Portugal
* Canary Islands: autonomous community of Spain
* Cape Verde: sovereign state, a member of the United Nations
* Madeira (including the Savage Islands): autonomous region of Portugal

## Geography and geology

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Layers of volcanic tephra 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.[3] Due to the geographic location, varied relief and altitudinal ranges, the Macaronesian mountains represent a wide range of climates. These climates include oceanic, Mediterranean, and humid subtropical climates in the Azores; the tropical savanna climates in Madeira; the desert and semi-desert climates in the Canary Islands;[15] 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 400 and 1,200 metres (1,300 and 3,900 ft), 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

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Remaining patches of Macaronesia's threatened primeval laurisilva 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.[16][unreliable source]

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 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi).[17]

## See also

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* Africa portal
* Europe portal
* European Union portal
* Geography portal

* Fortunate Isles
* Geology of the Azores
* Geology of the Canary Islands
* Geology of Cape Verde
* Geology of Madeira
* Laurel forest
* List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean
* Regions of Europe
* West Africa

## Notes

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1. ^ The islands of Flores and Corvo are in the North American plate, the island of Santa Maria is in the African plate, the rest of the islands are in the diffuse boundary between the Eurasian and the African plates.

## References

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1. ^ "Where Is Macaronesia?". WorldAtlas. 25 May 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
2. ^ "The Nine Islands of the Azores". Azores. 20 November 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
3. ^ a b Carracedo, Juan Carlos; Troll, Valentin R. (1 January 2021). "North-East Atlantic Islands: The Macaronesian Archipelagos". Encyclopedia of Geology. pp. 674–699\. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-102908-4.00027-8. ISBN 9780081029091. S2CID 226588940.
4. ^ "Countries: UCLA Africa Studies Center". International.UCLA.edu. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
5. ^ "Canary Islands – Spain". greenwichmeantime.com. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
6. ^ "Makavol 2010 Teneguia Workshop" (PDF). Avcan.org. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
7. ^ Nunes, João Carlos (2014). "The Azores Archipelago: Islands of Geodiversity". In Erfurt-Cooper, Patricia (ed.). Volcanic Tourist Destinations (PDF). Springer. p. 57\. ISBN 978-3-642-16190-2. Archived from the original on 14 January 2024. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
8. ^ Marques, Fernando; Catalão, João; Hildenbrand, Anthony; Costa, Ana; Dias, Nuno (21 October 2014). "The 1998 Faial earthquake, Azores: Evidence for a transform fault associated with the Nubia–Eurasia plate boundary?" (PDF). Tectonophysics. 633: 116, 122. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2014.06.024. Archived from the original on 14 January 2024. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
9. ^ "The Macaronesian Region". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
10. ^ a b Brummitt, R. K. (2001). World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (PDF) (2nd ed.). International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences. p. 37\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
11. ^ "Población por comunidades y ciudades autónomas y sexo". Retrieved 15 November 2022.
12. ^ "Population, total - Cabo Verde". World Bank. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
13. ^ "Resident population (No.) by Place of residence, Sex and Age group; Decennial - Statistics Portugal, Population and housing census - 2021". INE. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
14. ^ "The Historical Thesaurus of English; entry for Macarnonesia". Retrieved 12 July 2024.
15. ^ "Macaronesian Climate Atlas" (PDF). Aemet.es. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
16. ^ Jorge (28 March 2013). "Stray pets: Cat diet in Macaronesia (Atlantic Ocean)". Retrieved 18 June 2019.
17. ^ "The Macaronesian Region". European Commission. Retrieved 17 May 2017.

## External links

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* Media related to Macaronesia at Wikimedia Commons
* European Union: Report on biodiversity in Macaronesia
* Review on cats' diet on Macaronesian islands

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