Tropical Savanna

Tropical Savanna • Otherwise known as Tropical Thorn Scrub, Tropical Dry Forests, Florida Everglades, and West Indian Savanna.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's map of the world's tropical savannas

Climate • The tropical savannah’s climate has two season a wet and a dry season. The dry season (winter), most plants tend to shrivel up and die, many animals migrate to find food, and in some extremes rivers and lakes dry up. In the wet season (summer), vegetation flourishes, animals return and graze, and rivers and lakes are full of water. The average temperature year round is 68 to 86 Fahrenheit. In the winter it tends to be colder, averaging between 68 to 78 Fahrenheit. In the summer the average temp is 78 to 86. The temperature does not very much between season, the major differences in season is average rain fall. 10 to 30 inches of rain falls annually, the majority of the rain falls in the summer (wet season), and barely any rain falls in the winter epically from December to February.

Plant Adaptations • Grass- Grow quickly when there is water, turn brown during dry season to limit water loss and store nutrients and moisture in their roots until the rainy season • Baobab tree- only produces leaves during wet season, ability to store water in large trunk • Acacia tree- long tap roots that can reach deep ground water sources. It is also fire resistant, long sharp thorns and a symbiotic relationship with stinging ants to discourage predators, tall dome shape is a behavioral adaptation to prevent giraffe graving, also when giraffes graze the leaves release an alkaline chemical to make the giraffe have an unpleasant taste after the first few bites

Animal Adaptations • African Hedgehog- Spiny armour, ability to curl (unique circular skin muscle), very acute auditory and olfactory sense; these are to avoid predators and find food • Squirrel Monkey- Small back legs that allow jumping so that they can move through the trees. They do not come down from trees because there is no food and on the ground they can be hunted. • Elephant- Tusks to protect itself from danger, Trunk to drink, gather food, and bathe. • Zebras- Can run quickly to escape predators because they have long legs. Stay near water and move as big families.

Soil and Chemical Cycling • In the wet season the soil quality is very good any has rich vegetation. • Grassland soil is epically good at being biological filters to recover nutrients passing through the soil. Also the grass roots are active in the wet season and at these times they can recover nutrients for soil that can leak out from other land use. • Water quality because better as grassland vegation becomes denser • Water origins from the wet season in wich there is a lot of rain.

Human Value of Land • Main areas of employment in tropical savannas are the grazing industry, managing National Parks, tourism, the mining industry, aboriginal land use, and the horticulture industry. • There has been a rise in resource value and land-use options (managing for biodiversity), as well as an increase in the land ownership by Aboriginal people (in Australia)

Human Effect • A large amount of topical grasslands have been turned into farms by humans, this has had an negative effect on the bimoe because so animals have lost homes. • Another effect humans have had on our biome is hunting. Humans have hunted several animals such as Elephants who were hunted for there tusk, lions who were hunted for their fur. This has had a negative effect because this has driven some animals close to extinction • Also, humans have had the negative effect of introducing cattle to the grassland, cattle have a very negative effect because they tend to graze selectively. In that case cattle only eat the most tender plants and they do not eat the tougher ones, this allows more weeds to move in and the nutrient value of that swoard decline. Also there constant movement there hooves destroy the top layer of soil, and it makes it hard for many plants to grow

African Elephants Loxodonta Africana

Location • Africa, south of the Sahara and outside of the rainforest of Congo • The Western region of Niger, Easton Pahns of Namibia to the grassy savannah of Eastern Africa and westward into Central Africa.

Diet • They eat tree limbs, vines, shrubs, humans, grass, peanuts , and tubers • They live together in herds, females are the leaders.

African Elephant Habitat Found in southern, eastern, and central Africa. Their ideal habitat contains plenty of grass and is near food and water, but remote enough so that they are not disturbed by humans. The elephant can be destructive to its habitat by defoliating the areas in which it lives by stripping trees of bark and branches with its trunk. It is strong enough to deroot trees.

Range • The most it migrates it around 60 miles a year, but they vary greatly depending on the environment

Why is it endagered • African elephants have been over hunted for years, the ivory in their tusk have been used for piano keys, jewelry, and other luxury items. • The lose of habitat is also a reason why it is endangered

Level of Endangerment • It is considered endangered by U.S endangered species act, as well as the International Union of conservation of Nature and Natural Resources • It is listed in Appendix One • There is around 600,000 left

Recovery • There are now laws that make the hunting of elephants illegal • Ivory is now banned in many countries • There are very stick laws on poachers who are caught hunting elephants

African Elephant Conservation Act • 1989 is when it went into effect • United States department of Fish and Wildlife, international service

Provisions • The 1st provision of the act was put in place in 1989 , the United States established a moratorium on all ivy imports, this is still in place on any ivory products

Law Enforcement • Law is managed by: CITES: Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. CITES Ivory Control System: the ivory quota and marking system established by CITES to curtail illegal trade in African elephant ivory. Fund: African Elephant Conservation Fund. • Enforcement: Violation of these provisions is subject to criminal and civil penalties. The Secretary, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating are charged with enforcement.

How doe the laws apply to our biome and endangered species? This law is specific to our species, which is located within our biome.

WORK CITIED • http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/savannahP.html • http://www.veeriku.tartu.ee/~ppensa/animal_adaptation.html • http://lsb.syr.edu/projects/cyberzoo/africanelephant.html • http://www.savanna.org.au/all/faq.html • http://wildlifelaw.unm.edu/fedbook/afeleph.html

Tropical Savanna