Bermuda (officially, The Bermuda Islands or The Somers Isles) is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around northeast of Miami, Florida, and south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, south-southwest of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France), west of Fajã Grande, Ilha des Flores, Açores, Portugal, north-northwest of the Nascente do Panarî, Brazil (and from Oiapoque, Brazil), north of Havana, Cuba and north-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about west-northwest, followed by Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada northward. Although commonly referred to in the singular (i.e., The Island, The Rock, and Bermuda), the territory consists of approximately 138 islands, with a total area of .
Native terrestrial ecology
Bermuda's ecology has been altered radically since the 16th century by humans and the plants and animals they introduced. Some species had actually become extinct long before this, including the short-tailed albatross, a species which occurs today only in the northern Pacific Ocean.
Flora Forest cover is around 20% of the total land area, equivalent to 1,000 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, which was unchanged from 1990. Of 165 plant species found in Bermuda today, 14 are endemic, and 25 are endangered.
When discovered, about 1505, the island's habitat was dominated by the remnant, old-growth forest of Bermuda juniper (Juniperus bermudiana). Underwater archaeology of the caldera basin to the north shows that the area was once densely forested with junipers when it was above sea level. The juniper is an endemic species, though related to species found in North America. Its wood is an unusually deep red, indicative of the high iron content of the island's soil (which is similarly very red). Prior to human settlement, there were several million juniper trees in Bermuda.
By the 1830s, large areas of Bermuda had been denuded by the shipbuilding industry. As that industry died out in the 19th century, however, the junipers rapidly recovered their numbers. By 1900, when the human population neared 20,000, the islands were again covered densely with juniper, although many of these were juvenile trees. The respite proved temporary, however.
In the 1940s, it was realised that two species of scale insect, Lepidosaphes newsteadi and Carulaspis minima, had accidentally been introduced, and were rapidly killing off the junipers, which had no immunity to their toxicological effect. Attempts were made to control the infestation naturally, which involved the large-scale introduction of ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae), but these were to no avail. Over the next decade, roughly 8 million juniper trees were lost to the scales. Motor cars were legalised in Bermuda in 1948, as a result of changes wrought by World War II, and the resultant sprawl of the rapidly growing population (which had reached 60,000 by the 1980s) outward from the pre-war population centres happened simultaneously with the destruction of the forests. Unlike in the 19th century, many plant species that had been introduced, some, like the Casuarina, specifically to replace the windbreak lost with the juniper, spread virulently. The juniper grows slowly by comparison to many of the introduced species, and has been unable to thrive in the presence of Casuarina and Brazilian pepper trees. Efforts to restore it centre around intensively managed land areas, such as gardens and golf courses. Other large plant species, which were never as numerous as the juniper, had also fared poorly in the presence of invasive species, but have become popular with gardeners and their numbers also have increased in managed areas. These include two native species, the Bermuda olivewood (Elaeodendron laneanum), and the Bermuda palmetto (Sabal bermudana), the only native or endemic palm. In some coastal areas and inland marshes,
Bermuda is the most northerly point at which mangrove trees are found. Smaller plants include many ferns. Notable among these is the rare Bermuda cave fern (Ctenitis sloanei). An even rarer fern, Diplazium laffanianum, no longer survives in the wild. Another native plant is the iris Bermudiana (Sisyrinchium bermudiana). This was thought to be endemic, but also appears in two locations in Ireland. Many of the smaller endemic and native plants of Bermuda are rare and endangered, but others have survived and prospered. The common Bermuda grass is not actually Bermudian, but a Mediterranean import.
Fauna There were few species of land animal in Bermuda before the arrival of humans. The only vertebrate species was the Bermuda skink, or rock lizard (Eumeces longirostris). These were quite numerous, but have become rare due to predation by introduced species, and, especially, the introduction of glass bottles, in which they easily become trapped. Unlike the introduced anoles, their feet are unable to adhere to glass. Their range had been largely reduced to small islands of Castle Harbour, but they have re-colonised the mainland, and their numbers are increasing.
The only other large land animals found on the island were crustaceans, notably two species of land crab, including the rare giant land crab (Cardisoma quantami). Insects included the endemic, ground-burrowing solitary bee, which has not been observed for several decades and is believed extinct. The native cicada also became extinct with the loss of the juniper forest. Other native insects survive, including the migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), which has become threatened due to the loss of milkweed, which has been eradicated as a weed.
The most numerous animals were, and are, birds. Several native species are related to North American species, including the eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis), and the white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus bermudianus). Both of these were common, but have suffered from loss of habitat, from competition for nest sites with introduced house sparrows (Passer domesticus), and nest-predation by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and great kiskadees (Pitangus sulphuratus) - this last species was deliberately introduced as late as 1957, with the intent that it would control the previously introduced anoles. Other native birds, including the grey catbird, have suffered from the same causes.
The most famous Bermudian bird is the endemic Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma cahow), or cahow. This is a pelagic seabird which had dug burrows for its nests. Humans are believed to have killed millions of them after settlement began in 1609, and feral pigs, introduced presumably by Spaniards decades before, also attacked their nests. Before the 17th century was over, the cahow was believed to be extinct. After sightings of the bird at sea, a young Bermudian, David B. Wingate, theorised cahows might still be nesting on rocky islets of Castle Harbour. He visited these islets with ornithologists Robert Cushman Murphy and Louis S. Mowbray in 1951 and discovered a handful of nesting pairs. Under Wingate's supervision, a conservation programme has steadily increased the cahow's numbers. Species that arrived by natural dispersion and become native after human settlement include the American barn owl (Tyto furcata), and the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).
Introduced flora and fauna Since discovery by humans, numerous species have been introduced to the island, some deliberately, like the casurina, the feral pig, the cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), anoles, ladybird beetles, and the kiskadee, some incidentally, like the Norwegian rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the black rat (Rattus rattus), and the others accidentally, like the scale mites, and the brown widow spider (Latrodectus geometricus). Other imported species include the cane toad (Bufo marinus), and tree frogs.
In addition to casuarinas, numerous other species of tree, bush, shrub, cacti, palm, and other grasses have been introduced, with many of them proving to be invasive species. Despite the decimation of the cedar, those parts of the island not covered in buildings and tarmac are now densely covered in trees and shrubbery, including allspice (Pimenta dioica ), fiddlewood, Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla), bay grape (Coccoloba uvifera), Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora), poinciana (Delonix regia), fan palms, coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), royal palm (Roystonea), pittusporum, Natal plum, loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), oleander (Nerium oleander), and hibiscus. Most of the introduced species have proved to be unequal to Bermuda's frequently fierce weather. A succession of winter storms and a few powerful hurricanes that have struck over the last two decades have reduced woodlands, and available nest sites for small birds. The number of large trees, particularly, has been reduced. Although cedars are adapted to the local climate, and not so affected by stormy weather, rising sea levels are beginning to inundate the roots of old-growth cedars near low-lying marshlands, causing many to die.
Many domestic animal species have been introduced, including dogs, horses, goats, sheep, chickens, and cats, with cats long having established a large feral population. Feral chickens have recently become numerous (since the government ended its policy of allowing members of the local shotgun club to shoot them), and feral rabbits can also be found. Populations of feral guinea pigs have been established and then eradicated. Feral pigs were hunted to extinction centuries ago. Today, introduced feral species, particularly cats, are blamed for falling numbers of native birds, from bluebirds to longtails, but the primary threats are loss of habitat, due now to overdevelopment, and climate change (rising sea levels, increased hurricane activity, and rising temperatures are all having an effect on cahow nests, particularly).
Climate
Bermuda has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification: Af). It's the territory with tropical climate at the highest latitude in the world. Bermuda's oceanic influence results in a more moderate climate, more similar to the western coast of Europe than on the eastern coast of North America, characterised by high relative humidity, which moderates temperature, ensuring generally mild winters and summers (by example, Glasgow, Scotland, at 55°5140 North, has an average winter temperature around 3 °Celsius, with temperatures as low as -8 °Celsius possible in December - its coldest month, while at about the same latitude, on the coast of Labrador, winter temperatures average −12 °Celsius, and can drop as low as -35 °Celsius. Lisbon, Portugal, and Princeton, New Jersey, at similar latitudes, have daily means in January of 11.8 °Celsius and −0.4 °Celsius, respectively).