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    SAVANA

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    caddyy
    Savannas are globally important grasslands scattered with isolated trees and shrubs. They are characterized by a balance of woody and grassy vegetation and have warm temperatures year-round with distinct wet and dry seasons. Savannas support various large herbivores and predators like elephants, wild dogs, and emus. Human activities like overgrazing and forest clearing have contributed to desertification by degrading soils and reducing vegetation cover. Savannas make up over one-third of South Africa's land area and are the dominant biome in much of southern Africa.

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    SAVANA

    Uploaded by

    caddyy
    530 views10 pages
    Savannas are globally important grasslands scattered with isolated trees and shrubs. They are characterized by a balance of woody and grassy vegetation and have warm temperatures year-round with distinct wet and dry seasons. Savannas support various large herbivores and predators like elephants, wild dogs, and emus. Human activities like overgrazing and forest clearing have contributed to desertification by degrading soils and reducing vegetation cover. Savannas make up over one-third of South Africa's land area and are the dominant biome in much of southern Africa.

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    Savannas are globally important grasslands scattered with isolated trees and shrubs. They are characterized by a balance of woody and grassy vegetation and have warm temperatures year-round with distinct wet and dry seasons. Savannas support various large herbivores and predators like elephants, wild dogs, and emus. Human activities like overgrazing and forest clearing have contributed to desertification by degrading soils and reducing vegetation cover. Savannas make up over one-third of South Africa's land area and are the dominant biome in much of southern Africa.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    530 views10 pages

    SAVANA

    Uploaded by

    caddyy
    Savannas are globally important grasslands scattered with isolated trees and shrubs. They are characterized by a balance of woody and grassy vegetation and have warm temperatures year-round with distinct wet and dry seasons. Savannas support various large herbivores and predators like elephants, wild dogs, and emus. Human activities like overgrazing and forest clearing have contributed to desertification by degrading soils and reducing vegetation cover. Savannas make up over one-third of South Africa's land area and are the dominant biome in much of southern Africa.

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    A biome is a climatically and geographically

    defined area of ecologically similar climatic


    conditions such as communities of plants,
    animals, and soil organisms,
    Characteristics
    • Savannas are globally important ecosystems of
    great significance to human economies. In these
    biomes, which are characterized by the co-
    dominance of trees and grasses, woody cover is
    a chief determinant of ecosystem properties.
    The availability of resources (water, nutrients)
    and disturbance regimes (fire, herbivore) are
    thought to be important in regulating woody
    cover but perceptions differ on which of these
    are the primary drivers of savanna structure.
    • A savanna is a rolling grassland scattered with
    shrubs and isolated trees, which can be found
    between a tropical rainforest and desert biome. Not
    enough rain falls on a savanna to support forests.
    Savannas are also known as tropical grasslands.
    They are found in a wide band on either side of the
    equator on the edges of tropical rainforests.
    CLIMATE
    • Savannas have warm temperature year round.
    There are actually two very different seasons in
    a savanna; a very long dry season (winter), and
    a very wet season (summer). In the dry season
    only an average of about 4 inches of rain falls.
    Between December and February no rain will fall
    at all. Oddly enough, it is actually a little cooler
    during this dry season. But don't expect sweater
    weather; it is still around 70° F.
    ANIMALS
    • African elephants, also known as the
    savanna elephants, are the largest land
    mammal in the world. They weigh up to
    10,000 pounds and grow to 12 feet tall.

    • The African wild dog lives in


    grasslands, savannas, and open
    woodlands of eastern and southern
    Africa. They are mostly found in the
    African plains; they do not live in jungle
    areas.

    • The largest bird that inhabits the lush,


    grassy fields of Australia is the emus.
    them. They can live to be 28 years
    Adults are about 5.7 ft. tall and weigh
    about 110-120 lbs. It has medium size
    wings, but it can't fly!
    Challenges in the savanna
    • Fire and the grassland biome , especally those started by lightning, are a natural occurence of
    the grassland biome. Fire destroys invasive species that compete with grasses. Fire suppression and
    farmland conversion have severely disrupted grassland ecosystems. Resource mangers now use
    prescribed burning to restore the health of prairie grasslands

    • Dry Desert -The dry deserts are typically found in subtropical latitudes and are produced by
    subsidence associated with the eastern sides of the subtropical high. These are extremely dry
    regions, some places hardly receiving any measurable precipitation during the year. Plant cover is
    non-existent over much of the dry desert.

    Cause of Desertification
    Desertification comes about by a complex interaction between the natural environment and human
    activities. The cause may vary from region to region on account of economic conditions,
    population pressure, agricultural practices, and politics. Human activities that destroys surface
    vegetation, degrades soil structure and fertility, impedes water infiltration, and causes soil drying
    promotes desertification. This is especially true for the fragile transition zone between arid and
    semiarid land where human activity has stretched the ecosystem to its limit causing expansion of
    deserts.

    Population growth and its demand on agricultural resources has promoted the desertification process.
    Over cultivation, for example, causes declining soil fertility leading to falling crop yields. Over use
    leads to crusting of exposed topsoil by rain and sun that increases runoff, water erosion and
    gullying. Soil drying promotes wind erosion and encroachment of sand dunes on arable land.

     Overgrazing has several effects. It:


     Causes a decline in pasture vegetation and palatable grass species.
     Replaces perennials with short-lived annual species that do not hold soil against erosion.
     Compacts soil under trampling hoofs.
     Destabilizes dunes when crest vegetation is eaten.
     Forest cutting for fuel wood has deforested large tracks of land in Africa and Asia encouraging
    desertification.
    The Savanna Biome is the largest Biome
    in southern Africa, occupying 46% of its
    area, and over one-third the area of South
    Africa. It is well developed over the
    lowveld and Kalahari region of South
    Africa and is also the dominant vegetation
    in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
    References
    • Google
    • http://carrier.pbwiki.com/Population%20Ecolog
    • http://www.plantzafrica.com/vegetation/savann
    • Environmental book of science

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