Guinean forest-savanna mosaic
Guinean forest-savanna mosaic
| Topics: |  Ecology Conservation Biology Biodiversity |
Introduction
Gambia River, Gambia. (Photograph by WWF/Kate Newman)
The Guinean Forest-Savanna Mosaic runs through West Africa, dividing the Guinean rain forest from the Sudanian savanna. The interlacing forest, savanna, and grassland habitats are highly dynamic, and the proportion of forest versus other habitat components has varied greatly over time. These forest-savanna ecotones may offer critical habitat for differentiation and speciation. A number of large charismatic mammal species are found here, but national parks attract few visitors. The protected areas system is under funded and only covers two percent of the area of this ecoregion.
Justification of Ecoregion Delineation
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Guinea baboon (Papio hamadryas papio), Senegal. (Photograph by Pascal Dubois)
The Guinean Forest-Savanna Mosaic ecoregion lies between the western lowland rain forest ecoregions and the Western Sudanian Savanna. The ecoregion boundaries follow the ‘mosaic of lowland rain forest and secondary grassland’ vegetation unit of White. It is distinct from the Northern Congolian Forest-Savanna Mosaic ecoregion as it is largely separated by the Cameroonian Highlands, which acts a range limit for several forest-savanna mosaic taxa. The southern boundary is defined by the transition to more continuous forest cover. The northern boundary was verified with 1 kilometers (km) classified land cover data derived from AVHRR satellite imagery.
Additional Information on this Ecoregion
Gambia River, near Mbandaka, Gambia. (Photograph by Kate Newman)
- For a shorter summary of this entry, see the WWF WildWorld profile of this ecoregion.
- To see the species that live in this ecoregion, including images and threat levels, see the WWF Wildfinder description of this ecoregion.
- World Wildlife Fund Homepage
Further Reading
- Loveland, T.R., B.C. Reed, J.F. Brown, D.O. Ohlen, Z. Zhu, L. Yang, and J.W. Merchant. 2000. Development of a global land cover characteristics database and IGBP DISCover from 1 km AVHRR data]. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 21:1303-1330.
- White, F. 1983. The vegetation of Africa, a descriptive memoir to accompany the UNESCO/AETFAT/UNSO Vegetation Map of Africa (3 Plates, Northwestern Africa, Northeastern Africa, and Southern Africa, 1:5,000,000). UNESCO, Paris. ISBN: 9231019554
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Citation
World Wildlife Fund (Lead Author);Mark McGinley (Topic Editor) "Guinean forest-savanna mosaic". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth January 31, 2008; Last revised Date January 31, 2008; Retrieved February 9, 2012 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Guinean_forest-savanna_mosaic>
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