Admin What is the climate and vegetation of Africa?
Africa is the most tropical of all continents. Climate and vegetation range from equatorial rainforests, tropical deserts and savanna grassland to Mediterranean. The Sahara Desert, the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, is over 10.4 million km2 n North to south is approx. 1800 kms and east-west is 5600km.
What is Africa’s relationship between vegetation and climate?
Africa is largely influenced by fires, which play an important ecological role influencing the distribution and structure of grassland, savanna and forest biomes. Here vegetation strongly interacts with climate and other environmental factors, such as herbivory and humans.
How does climate and vegetation affect each other?
Vegetation can affect climate and weather patterns due to the release of water vapor during photosynthesis. The release of vapor into the air alters the surface energy fluxes and leads to potential cloud formation.
How is the vegetation in Africa?
A Grassy Continent Africa’s vegetation—like its climate—is almost mirrored north and south of the equator. Africa’s vegetation consists of grasslands, rain forests, and a wide variety of other plant life.
What is vegetation and how does climate affect it?
How does climate affect vegetation? The plant community in an area is the most sensitive indicator of climate. Areas with moderate to high temperatures and abundant rainfall throughout the year are heavily forested (unless humans have cleared the land for agriculture!).
What are the main features of the African climate?
Differences in temperature between day and night or often larger than between summer and winter. Climate regions in Africa are under change, maybe due to global warming. Droughts are becoming more widespread across the Sahel and eastern Africa. The Sahara is moving southward and more and more areas are threatened by deforestation.
What kind of vegetation does Africa have?
All of Africa’s regions contain a variety of vegetation. North Africa contains sizable oak and pine forests in the upper reaches of the Atlas Mountains. The mangrove tree of West Africa sprouts up along river banks in swamps and river deltas. Mangrove tree roots are breeding grounds for fish.
How does the rain affect agriculture in Africa?
Rainfall influences Africa’s agriculture. Nutrients in the top layers of the soil are washed away after torrential rain, on the other side nothing can grow if it rains too little. In the desert regions of the Sahara, Namib and Kalahari rainfall often drops to under a hundred cm a year.