Guinean forest-savanna mosaic
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Introduction
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
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
- 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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