Mare Longue: The last forest?

🌳 Back to the Mare Longue Forest: Beauty and Tropical Issues! 🌿

Welcome to this immersive video, a return to the majestic Mare Longue forest in the tropics, highlighting its extraordinary ecology.

🌲 Forest characteristics : A green setting between 150 and 800 metres

Mare Longue, a low-lying hygrophilous forest at an altitude of between 150 and 800 metres, has been classified as a nature reserve since 1981. However, despite this classification, human activities, particularly sugar cane cultivation, have gradually encroached on this forest land.

🌿 Amazing Biodiversity: 500 Years of History on a Lava Substrate

This forest, which is almost 500 years old, thrives on a lava flow substrate. The incredible biodiversity found here is carefully monitored by the University of La Réunion, with a view to understanding and preserving it.

🌍 Challenges to overcome: Human threats, erosion and invasive species

Mare-Longue faces many challenges, including the impact of human activities, erosion and invasive species. The introduction of exotic species is particularly disruptive to the balance of the ecosystem.

🌱 Ecological interactions: stabilisation, history and unique adaptations

The video explores different ecological aspects of the forest, highlighting the stabilising role of the buttresses (stilt roots) in consolidating the trees, the impact of lava flows, and the problem of the loss of seed dispersers on forest regeneration.

In this video, you will learn more about:

01:07 - Presentation of the Mare Longue forest

03:43 - The resistance of trees

06:45 - Fossil footprint of biodiversity

07:56 - Invasive alien species

11:13 - Seed dispersal

14:07 - Leaf drip-tip