The ecoregion includes the upper elevations of the Hajar Mountains. The mountains form an arc from northwest to southeast through portions of Oman and the U.A.E., extending over 500 kilometres (310 miles) in length. The mountains run parallel to the coast of the Gulf of Oman, with the Al Batinah Region in the coastal plain between the mountains and the sea.[1]
Al Hajar al Gharbi, or the Western Hajar, extend from the Musandam Peninsula at the northeastern tip of Arabia, through the eastern UAE and northern Oman. Al Hajar ash Sharqi, or the Eastern Hajar, extends eastwards towards Ras al Hadd, the easternmost point in Oman and Arabia. The Sama'il Gap separates the eastern and western portions of the range. The limestone massifs of Jebel Shams (2,997m (9,833ft)) and Jebel Akhdar (2,980m (9,780ft)), located just west of the Sumail Gap, are the highest peaks in the range. The highest peak in the eastern Hajar is 2,152 metres (7,060 feet).[1]
The ecoregion has a semi-arid temperate climate, transitioning to subtropical at lower elevations. The coolest months are December through March, when the mountains receive thunderstorms, rain, hailstorms and occasional snow, particularly at higher elevations. April to September are warmer, with occasional rainstorms brought by the Indian Ocean monsoons.[1]
Flora
The natural vegetation types include shrubland and open woodland and the flora varies with elevation and underlying geology.
Montane woodlands occur on the high peaks between 2,100 and 3,000 metres elevation. Juniperus seravschanica[3] is the characteristic tree, sometimes mixed with Olea europaea.[1]
Ceratonia oreothauma ssp. oreothauma is an endemic subspecies of the tree found only in a single valley on Jebel Aswad in the eastern Hajar. The other subspecies occurs in Somalia.[5]
The Arabian tahr (Arabitragus jayakari) is endemic to the region. Other large mammals occur in small numbers, including the Mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella), particularly in the Wadi Sareen Reserve, Arabian wolf (Canis lupus arabs), striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) and Arabian wildcat (Felis lybica lybica).[1]
The ecoregion is threatened by overgrazing from camels, goats and feral donkeys. Overgrazing has limited the ability of the Ceratonia woodlands and juniper woodlands below 2,400 metres to regenerate.[1]
Protected areas
1.27% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include Hatta Protected Area, 28km2 (11sqmi), in the United Arab Emirates, and Al Sareen Nature Reserve, 780.49km2 (301.35sqmi), and Al Jabal Al Akhdar Scenic Reserve, 296km2 (114sqmi), in Oman.[2]
The West Saharan montane xeric woodlands is an ecoregion that extends across several highland regions in the Sahara. Surrounded at lower elevations by the largely barren Sahara, the West Saharan montane xeric woodlands are isolated refuges of plants and animals that can survive in the higher humidity and lower temperatures of the highlands.
The Northern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic is a forest and savanna ecoregion of central Africa. It extends east and west across central Africa, covering parts of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda. It is part of the belt of transitional forest-savanna mosaic that lie between Africa's moist equatorial Guineo-Congolian forests and the tropical dry forests, savannas, and grasslands to the north and south.
The Crimean Submediterranean forest complex is an ecoregion on the Black Sea coast of Russia and Ukraine. It is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome.
The Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is a xeric woodland ecoregion in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula.
The Mediterranean Acacia–Argania dry woodlands and succulent thickets is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in North Africa centered mainly on Morocco but also including northwestern Western Sahara and the eastern Canary Islands.
The Mediterranean woodlands and forests is an ecoregion in the coastal plains, hills, and mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean in North Africa. It has a Mediterranean climate, and is in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
The Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert, also known as the Southwestern Arabian coastal xeric scrub, is a desert ecoregion on the southern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, which experiences thick fogs where visibility may be reduced to 10 metres (33 ft). It is classed as an Afrotropical fog desert
The Ethiopian montane grasslands and woodlands is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion in Ethiopia. It occupies the middle elevations of the Ethiopian Highlands, between the high-elevation Ethiopian montane moorlands and lowland woodlands, savannas, shrublands, and thickets.
The Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert is a coastal ecoregion on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in Oman and the United Arab Emirates at the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The climate is hot and dry, with gravelly plains and savanna with thorny acacia trees inland from the coast. Along the coast there are mixture of habitats that include mangrove swamps, lagoons and mudflats. The mangrove areas are dominated by Avicennia marina and the savanna by Prosopis cineraria and Vachellia tortilis. Masirah Island is an important breeding area for the loggerhead sea turtle and other sea turtles also occur here, as well as a great variety of birds, some resident and some migratory. There are some protected areas, but in general the habitats have been degraded by the grazing of livestock, especially camels and goats; they are also at risk from oil spills, off-road driving and poaching.
The Italian sclerophyllous and deciduous forests ecoregion, part of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, is in Italy. The ecoregion covers most of the Italian Peninsula and includes both evergreen and deciduous forests.
The Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests is an ecoregion in southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Dalmatian Islands of Croatia, and Malta.
The Eastern Anatolian montane steppe is a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion. It is located in the Armenian Highlands, covering parts of eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern Georgia, and northwestern Iran.
The Somali Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets is a semi-arid tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in the Horn of Africa. It is home to diverse communities of plants and animals, including several endemic species.
The Southwestern Arabian foothills savanna, also known as the Southwestern Arabian Escarpment shrublands and woodlands, is a desert and xeric shrubland ecoregion of the southern Arabian Peninsula, covering portions of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman.
The South Arabian fog woodlands, shrublands, and dune is an ecoregion in Oman and Yemen. The fog woodlands lie on mountainsides which slope southeastwards towards the Arabian Sea. The mountains intercept moisture-bearing winds from the Arabian Sea, creating orographic precipitation and frequent fogs that sustain unique woodlands and shrublands in a desert region.
The Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It occupies the interior valleys and plateaus of the Iberian Peninsula. The ecoregion lies mostly in Spain, and includes some portions of eastern Portugal.
The Gissaro-Alai open woodlands ecoregion covers the western foothills winding around two western offshoots of the Tian Shan Mountains in western Tajikistan, and parts of eastern Uzbekistan and western Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. The woodlands are typically of Juniper trees and shrubs, fitting the altitude zone situated between the desert valley floor, and the tree line, above which the mountain ridges are glaciated and barren.
The South Iran Nubo–Sindian desert and semi-desert ecoregion covers the northern coastal plain of the Persian Gulf and the inland desert hills south of the Zagros Mountains of Iran. The region also has extensions reaching into southeastern Iraq, and eastward into southwestern Pakistan. The region is one of hot sand deserts, shrubland, and open thorn woodlands inland. Mangrove forests and swamps are found along the coast.
The Paropamisus xeric woodlands ecoregion covers the portion of northeastern Afghanistan north of the central mountain range and the Hindu Kush Mountains. The name is derived from the Old Persian name for the region, Parupraesanna. While there are low canopy woodlands in the northeast of the ecorgegion, most of the territory is desert or xeric (dry) scrubland.
The Baluchistan xeric woodlands ecoregion covers the middle elevations of a series of mountain ranges of western Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan, reaching 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the Arabian Sea in the south to the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Himalayas in the north. The characteristic vegetation is xeric (dry) woodlands of shrubs and herbaceous cover. The region has rich biodiversity but relatively few endemic species.
↑ Adams, R.P., Al-Farsi, A. & Schwarzbach, A.E. (2014). Confirmation of the southern-most population of Juniperus seravschanica in Oman by DNA sequencing of nrDNA and four cpDNA regions Phytologia 96: 218-224.
↑ Kürschner H. (1998) Biogeography and Introduction to Vegetation. In: Ghazanfar S.A., Fisher M. (eds) Vegetation of the Arabian Peninsula. Geobotany, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-3637-4_4
↑ Hillcoat, D., G. Lewis, and B. Verdcourt. "A New Species of Ceratonia (Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae) from Arabia and the Somali Republic." Kew Bulletin 35, no. 2 (1980): 261-71. Accessed December 4, 2020. doi:10.2307/4114570.
1 2 Takhtajan, A. L. (1986). Floristic Regions of the World. University of California Press, Berkeley. QK 101.T313 1986 ISBN 0-520-04027-9
↑ Sanjay Gairola, Tamer Mahmoud, Hatem A. Shabana & Gary R. Feulner (2021) Distribution and ecology of the Hajar Mountain endemic Schweinfurthia imbricata in the United Arab Emirates, Botany Letters, 168:4, 512-516, DOI: 10.1080/23818107.2021.1905058
↑ Darrin W. Duling, Ghazanfar, S. A., & Hew D. V. Prendergast. (1998). A New Species of Ziziphus Mill. (Rhamnaceae) from Oman. Kew Bulletin, 53(3), 733–739. https://doi.org/10.2307/4110494
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