Editing Tromelin Island (section)

== Fauna and flora ==
Flora are poorly developed due to weather conditions and lack of fresh water. With the exception of two or three months in summer, this flat island is swept day and night by heavy winds that are sustained in winter. In summer, it can suffer the onslaught of cyclones and tropical storms.

There is only grass and brush (low shrubs) present on the island. Veloutaries (''[[Heliotropium foertherianum]]'') and purslane (''[[Portulaca oleracea]]''), with growth shaped by dominant east winds, are present everywhere on the island.

The fauna consist mainly of [[hermit crabs]] (Paguroidea), seabirds, and sea turtles for which the island is an important nesting place. The green turtle (''[[Chelonia mydas]]'') is mainly encountered and, to a lesser extent, the [[hawksbill sea turtle]].

The waters are rich with fish. The French Coral Reef Initiative (IFRECOR) has identified 26 species of corals. [[wikt:allochthonous|Allochthonous]] species were introduced on the island during the various shipwrecks: rats, mice and rabbits. The latter were decimated in [[Cyclone Erinesta (1986)|1986 by cyclone Erinesta]].

===Important bird area===
The island has been identified as an [[Important Bird Area]] (IBA) by [[BirdLife International]] because of its significance as a [[bird colony|seabird breeding site]]. Both [[masked booby|masked]] (with up to 250&nbsp;pairs) and [[red-footed booby|red-footed boobies]] (up to 180 pairs) nest on the island. [[Sulidae]] populations have seriously declined in the western Indian Ocean with those on Tromelin among the healthiest remaining.

The island's [[masked boobies]] are of the western Indian Ocean subspecies (''Sula dactylatra melanops''), of which Tromelin is a stronghold.<ref name="boobies">{{cite book |title=African Wildlife |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-59LAQAAIAAJ |year=1974 |publisher=Wildlife Society of Southern Africa}}</ref> The red-footed boobies constitute the only polymorphic population in the region, indicating its biogeographical isolation. Both [[great frigatebird|great]] and [[lesser frigatebird]]s used to nest on the island. The breeding populations of both birds had been [[Local extinction|extirpated]], though that has changed.

Invasive rats that arrived on Tromelin Island centuries ago with the wreck of a slave ship<ref name="economist">{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21683979-what-happened-when-slaves-and-free-men-were-shipwrecked-together-lu00e8se |title=Lèse humanité |newspaper=The Economist |date=16 December 2015 |access-date=26 August 2017}}</ref> decimated the island's seabird population.<ref name="cb">{{cite web |publisher=Society for Conservation Biology |series=Conservation Science and Practice |year=2024 |title=Long-term monitoring highlights the positive responses of the seabird community to rat eradication at Tromelin Island, Western Indian Ocean |doi=10.1111/csp2.13083 |url=https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.13083 |access-date=2024-02-05 |df=dmy-all |last1=Saunier |first1=Merlène |last2=Amy |first2=Maxime |last3=Baumann |first3=Michaël |last4=Bignon |first4=Florent |last5=Cartraud |first5=Audrey |last6=d'Orchymont |first6=Quentin |last7=Gazal |first7=Julien |last8=Goguelat |first8=Antoine |last9=Lemenager |first9=Marc |last10=Marinesque |first10=Sophie |last11=Orlowski |first11=Sabine |last12=Manuelian |first12=Pierre Etienne |last13=Le Corre |first13=Matthieu |volume=6 |issue=2 |bibcode=2024ConSP...6E3083S }}</ref>  By the time eradication efforts began in 2005, only two booby species remained. Despite the lack of any active restoration actions after the eradication of rats, and the remoteness of the island, 17 years after rat eradication, the seabird community increased from two to seven breeding species, and from 353 to 4758 breeding pairs (total for all species).<ref name="hakai">{{cite web |publisher=Hakai Institute |year=2024 |title=Tromelin Island's Impressive Comeback |url=http://www.birdlife.org |access-date=2024-05-18 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Unlike seabirds, there are no resident landbirds on Tromelin Island.<ref name="bli">{{cite web |publisher=BirdLife International |year=2012 |series=Important Bird Areas factsheet |title=Tromelin |url=http://www.birdlife.org |access-date=2012-01-07 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>