terrestrial biomes

• The savanna biome: Savanna refers to the vegetation that has mixed grasslands and trees

  • Features of the savanna biome:
  • infertile, porous soil, which allows water to drain away quickly
  • wild animals such as antelope, lion ,buffalo, leopard, cheetah ,hippo, giraffe, zebra and elephant.
  • livestock such as cattle graze the grasses
• • Features of the savanna biome:
  • many types of birds such as hornbills ,flycatchers, woodpeckers and shrikes
  • Baobbab, marula, mopane and acacia trees
  • Summer rainfall with hot temperatures, cold winters with little rain.
• Threats to the savanna biome:

  • game hunting
• The grassland biome: This biome is 24 percent of south Africa's arrea with grasses the main vegetation.

  • Features of the grassland biome:
  • High rainfall: thunderstorms and hail in the summer and frost in the winter
  • deep and dark soils with fertile upper layers
  • Mainly "sweet" grass for the grazers
• • Features of the grassland biome:
  • many kinds of antelope- blesbok, black wildebeest, rietbok, grey rhebok, eland, springbok- are common plus big cats such as lion
  • Variety of birds such as the blue crane, black korhaan and guinea fowl
  • Maize farming, dairy farming, beef and wool production
  • A number of perennial rivers such as the orange, Vaal and Pongola
• Threats to the grassland biome:

  • Commercial forestry and farming
• The Nama karoo biome is an area of transition between the cape flora in the south and the tropical Savanna in the north>

  Features of the Nama Karoo:

  • A warm ,dry, semi dessert climate
  • sandy soil with little nutrition
  • Plants such as sweet thorn, stone plant and blue karoo daisy.
• Features of the Nama Karoo:

  • Sheep farming is the main agricultural activity
  • a rich variety or rodents such as the plus fox, jackal ,ostrich and reptiles.
  • Endemic or near endemic bird species such as the Scalters lark.
• The succulent karoo biome is in the western part of south Africa, stretching all the way up to the west coast:

  features of the Succulent Karoo are:

  winter rainfall with very hot dry summers

  sandy soil with little nutritional value

  succulent plants
• features of the Succulent Karoo are:

  • Annual plants that survive the dry period by germinating, growing,f lowering and setting seeds during the moist winter and spring
  • Animals such as the dassie rat, Namaqua dune mole-rat and barking gecko
• Damage to the Nama and succulent karoo is mainly caused by sheep overgrazing. Other problems are the over collection of endemic plants and badly managed tourism
• The fynbos biome: Fynbos is an Afrikaans word which refers to the small shrubs with fine leaves that occur in this biome. Fynbos only occurs in the southwestern Cape.

  features of the fynbos are:

  • cold ,wet winters and hot dry summers with strong winds and regular fires
  • Sandy and alkaline coastal soil
  • evergreen plants meaning plants that do not loose their leaves
• features of the fynbos are:

  • low shrubs with fine leaves such as ericas and leafless tufted grass like plants such as restios are the main plants, Proteas can grow into large bushes
  • trees are rare and grasses are a small part of the vegetation
  • The fynbos plants can only reproduce through seeds. They depend on small mammals for pollination
• features of the fynbos are:

  • fynbos is one of the most diverse floras in the world
  • 68 percent endemic plants, many are found ion small areas
  • fauna includes leopard, grysbok, mountain zebra and the geometric tortoise
• Threats to the fynbos are:

  • development and agriculture
  • plantations of alien trees
  • uncontrolled fires
• The forest biome has indigenous evergreen and semi deciduous closed forests found on the coastal lowlands and escarpment slopes. Forests are small.

  features of the forest biome are:

  • high rainfall areas
  • small area but high number of different organisms
  • structures of trees of different trees so there is reduced light beneath the canopy
• features of the forest biome are:

  • species such as tree ferns and vines common at the shady ground level
  • animals such as bushbuck, bush pig and blue duiker. Birds include the Knysna lourie, woodpecker and rameron pigeon
• threats to the fynbos biome are

  • human activity
• The thicket biome is found in river valleys where the water is a thick layer of rich soil.

  features of the thicket biome are:

  • dune sands, sandy and clay soils
  • different types of vegetation , from shrubs , evergreen forests to succulents
  • many plants with spines to protect from grazers
  • small common animals such as monkeys and squirrels and large animals such as black rhino, elephant and kudu