Shangri-La is a fictional place described as a mystical, harmonious valley in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton, and has become synonymous with any earthly paradise ~ a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world.
Like Shangri La the Hawaiian Islands may be the most isolated archipelago on earth, yet contain all the earth’s terrestrial biomes, except for tundra.
The climate of a region determines what plants will grow, and what animals will inhabit it. All three: climate, plants and animals are interwoven to create the fabric of a biome. A biome is a large geographical area in which life is adapted to that particular environment.
The major terrestrial biomes in the world include: Desert, Tundra, Chaparral or Scrub, Taiga or Coniferous Forest, Temperate Deciduous Forest, Grassland, Temperate Rain Forest, Tropical Rain Forest, Land Caves, and Wetlands.
For such a small area Hawai`i has a wide variety of biomes due to a variety of factors including topography and locations. Each biome consists of many ecosystems whose communities have adapted to the small differences in climate and the environment inside the biome.
Hawai`i’s main biomes are: Coastal, Dry Wood Forest, Mesic Forest,
Rainforest, Desert, Sub-Alpine Grass/Shrubland and Alpine Desert.
The island of Hawai`i are rather dry and were it not for their
large mountains that catch precipitation, these islands would be noticeable
deserts.
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