"Savannah" redirects here. For the city in the U.S. state of Georgia, see Savannah, Georgia. For other uses, see Savannah (disambiguation).
A tree savanna in Tanzania, East Africa (Tarangire National Park)A grass savannah in South Africa (Kruger National Park)
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.[1][2][3] According to Britannica, there exists four savanna forms; savanna woodland where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, tree savanna with scattered trees and shrubs, shrub savanna with distributed shrubs, and grass savanna where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.[4]
Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density.[5] It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forests.[6][7][8][9] The South American savanna types cerrado sensu stricto and cerrado dense typically have densities of trees similar to or higher than that found in South American tropical forests,[6][8][9] with savanna ranging from 800 to 3300 trees per hectare (trees/ha) and adjacent forests with 800–2000 trees/ha. Similarly Guinean savanna has 129 trees/ha, compared to 103 for riparian forest,[7] while Eastern Australian sclerophyll forests have average tree densities of approximately 100 per hectare, comparable to savannas in the same region.[10]
Savannas are also characterised by seasonal water availability, with the majority of rainfall confined to one season; they are associated with several types of biomes, and are frequently in a transitional zone between forest and desert or grassland, though they're mostly a transition between desert to forest.[11] Savanna covers approximately 20% of the Earth's land area.[12] Unlike the prairies in North America and steppes in Eurasia, which would feature cold winters, savannahs are mostly located in areas having warm to hot climates, such as those in Africa, Australia, Thailand, South America and India.[13]
^Anderson, Roger A., Fralish, James S. and Baskin, Jerry M. editors.1999. Savannas, Barrens, and Rock Outcrop Plant Communities of North America. Cambridge University Press.
^McPherson, G. R. (1997). Ecology and management of North American Savannas. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
^Werner, Patricia A.; B. H. Walker; P. A Stott (1991). "Introduction". In Patricia A. Werner (ed.). Savanna Ecology and Management: Australian Perspectives and Intercontinental Comparisons. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-632-03199-3.
^Smith, Jeremy M.B.. "savanna". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Sep. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/science/savanna/Environment. Accessed 17 September 2022.
^Alexandro Solórzano, Jeanine Maria Felfili 2008 "Comparative analysis of the international terminaoolgy for cerrado" IX Symposio Nacional Cerrado 13 a 17 de outubro de 2008 Parlamundi Barsilia, DF
^ abManoel Cláudio da Silva Jánior, Christopher William Fagg, Maria Cristina Felfili, Paulo Ernane Nogueira, Alba Valéria Rezende, and Jeanine Maria Felfili 2006 "Chapter 4. Phytogeography of Cerrado Sensu Stricto and Land System Zoning in Central Brazil" in "Neotropical Savannas and Seasonally Dry Forests: Plant Diversity, Biogeography, and Conservation" R. Toby Pennington, James A. Ratter (eds) 2006 CRC Press
^ abAbdullahi Jibrin 2013 "A Study of Variation in Physiognomic Characteristics of Guinea Savanna Vegetation" Environment and Natural Resources Research 3:2
^ abErika L. Geiger, Sybil G. Gotsch, Gabriel Damasco, M. Haridasan, Augusto C. Franco & William A. Hoffmann 2011 "Distinct roles of savanna and forest tree species in regeneration under fire suppression in a Brazilian savanna" Journal of Vegetation Science 22
^ abScholz, Fabian G.; Bucci, Sandra J.; Goldstein, Guillermo; Meinzer, Frederick C.; Franco, Augusto C.; Salazar, Ana. 2008 "Plant- and stand-level variation in biophysical and physiological traits along tree density gradients in the Cerrado", Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology
^Tait, L 2010, Structure and dynamics of grazed woodlands in North-eastern Australia, Master of Applied Science Thesis, Central Queensland University, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Health, Rockhampton.
^"Savanna". Ask a Biologist. 25 May 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
^Sankaran, Mahesh; Hanan, Niall P.; Scholes, Robert J.; Ratnam, Jayashree; Augustine, David J.; Cade, Brian S.; Gignoux, Jacques; Higgins, Steven I.; Le Roux, Xavier (December 2005). "Determinants of woody cover in African savannas". Nature. 438 (7069): 846–849. Bibcode:2005Natur.438..846S. doi:10.1038/nature04070. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 16341012. S2CID 4344778.
^"The grassland biome". UCMP. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
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