Country

Cayman Islands: one ecoregion. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

The Cayman Islands' single roster ecoregion is the Bahamian-Antillean mangroves, the coastal wetland system shared across the Bahamas and Antilles. For three low-lying limestone islands that is an apt signature: mangrove wetlands are the islands' defining natural vegetation, buffering storms, sheltering nurseries of marine life, and anchoring the coastline. Growing conditions are warm year-round with a wet and a dry season, but the real constraints are thin alkaline soil over limestone, salt, and hurricane wind. Plants that shrug those off, salt-tolerant coastal trees, dry-tolerant natives, succulents, do the durable work; lusher tropicals need built-up soil, irrigation through the dry months, and shelter from wind and spray.