The ecoregion occupies moderate elevations in the peninsula's mountainous southwest, including the Hijaz and Asir Mountains of Saudi Arabia, the Sarawat Mountains of Yemen, and the Dhofar Mountains of southwestern Oman.
The mountains rise from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in a series of escarpments. The highest peaks are in southwest Yemen, and the mountains generally diminish in height to the north and east. The rocks are generally Precambrian, and include granite, gneiss, and schist. In places they are overlain by areas of younger volcanic rock, known as harrats. The Hadhramaut and Dhofar mountains are mostly sedimentary rocks, including limestones, marls, sandstones, bauxitic clay, evaporites, shales, turbidites and conglomerates over a base of older Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks.[4]
Climate
The climate is tropical to subtropical and semi-arid. Average annual rainfall is generally 250 mm or less, and with areas of higher rainfall in the southeastern mountains. Marine upwelling along the Arabian Sea coast chills the air above sea's surface, creating fog during the summer months that cools and provides moisture to southeastward-facing mountain slopes in Dhofar and southern Yemen.[5]
Flora
The principal plant communities include drought-deciduous open thorn woodlands, drought-deciduous woodlands, evergreen woodlands, shrublands, and dry grasslands. The vegetation varies with elevation, rainfall, and soils, and has been extensively altered by livestock grazing and human use.[6]
Seasonal watercourses, or wadis, are lined with Breonadia salicina, Cordia abyssinica, Ficus vasta, and Mimusops laurifolia.[6] In a few sheltered wadis with year-round moisture on the western slopes of the escarpment, including Jabal Fayfa, Mimusops laurifolia, an evergreen tree, has grown to great age and large size, and these trees are the largest in Saudi Arabia.[9][10]
Semi-evergreen woodlands of Barbeya oleoides and Olea europaea are found between 1800 and 2200 meters elevation, and form the transition between the Acacia-Commiphora woodlands at lower elevations and the high-elevation Juniper woodlands of Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands ecoregion.[6]
The flora of the ecoregion has many affinities to that of tropical East Africa. Acacia-Commiphora woodlands are characteristic of the dry East African lowlands and foothills, and the Southwestern Arabian woodlands and savannas share many species. Southwestern Arabia's high-elevation forests and humid forests at lower elevations share many Afromontane species with the high mountains of Eastern Africa.[6]
Scortecci's toad (Bufo scorteccii) is an endemic species known only from one location – Wadi al Khalili on a high plateau near Mafhaq (1,550 meters elevation) in northern Yemen.[15]
Human use
The ecoregion has been settled for millennia. Archeological evidence of settled agriculture dates back more than 5000 years.[16] Local people created terraced fields on steep slopes in areas of relatively high rainfall, and irrigated farms in the lower reaches of streams descending from the mountains. The mountains are also used for grazing livestock, including cattle, sheep, goats, and camels.
Boswellia sacra is a shrub or small tree that grows on drier northern slopes in the Hadramaut and Dhofar mountains and in northern Somalia. It is the source of frankincense, and aromatic resin, which has been harvested and traded for centuries. Myrrh is another aromatic resin gathered from Commiphora myrrha.[17][18]
The woodlands have been degraded and reduced in area by overharvesting trees for timber and firewood, livestock grazing, and conversion to agriculture, particularly around the ecoregion's cities.[6]
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics, and environmental conditions". For example, based on their levels of endemism, Madagascar gets multiple listings, ancient Lake Baikal gets one, and the North American Great Lakes get none.
The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopian Zone or Ethiopian Region.
The Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is a xeric woodland ecoregion in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula.
The Arabian Peninsula coastal fog desert, also known as the Southwestern Arabian coastal xeric scrub, is 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 xeric grasslands and shrublands ecoregion is a semi-desert strip on or near the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden coasts in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. This ecoregion lies mainly between sea level and 800 meters (m) elevation. There are, however, many hills and massifs, which range up to 1300 m as well as outstanding fault-induced depressions, such as the Danakil, lying as low as 155 m below sea level. This region is extremely active tectonically, experiencing many earthquakes and intermittently active volcanoes. Rainfall is very low and yearly averages range from 100 to 200 millimeters (mm), with less rain falling closer to the coast. There are many species of interest, including the endemic Archer's lark, a species of dragon tree, and a large suite of desert ungulates, including the last viable population of African wild ass.
Northern Zanzibar–Inhambane coastal forest mosaic, also known as the Northern Swahili coastal forests and woodlands, is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of coastal East Africa. The ecoregion includes a variety of habitats, including forest, savanna and swamps.
The Ethiopian montane forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in eastern Africa. It covers the middle elevations of the Ethiopian Highlands in Ethiopia and extends into neighboring Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti, and Somaliland. The ecoregion includes distinctive Afromontane forests, woodlands, grasslands, and shrublands. The ecoregion's biodiversity is threatened by deforestation, conversion to agriculture, and overgrazing.
The wildlife of Yemen is substantial and varied. Yemen is a large country in the southern half of the Arabian Peninsula with several geographic regions, each with a diversity of plants and animals adapted to their own particular habitats. As well as high mountains and deserts, there is a coastal plain and long coastline. The country has links with Europe and Asia, and the continent of Africa is close at hand. The flora and fauna have influences from all these regions and the country also serves as a staging post for migratory birds.
The wildlife of Saudi Arabia is substantial and varied. Saudi Arabia is a very large country forming the biggest part of the Arabian Peninsula. It has several geographic regions, each with a diversity of plants and animals adapted to their own particular habitats. The country has several extensive mountain ranges, deserts, highlands, steppes, hills, wadis, volcanic areas, lakes and over 1300 islands. The Saudi Arabian coastline has a combined length of 2,640 km (1,640 mi) and consists of the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the west while a shorter eastern coastline can be found along the Persian Gulf.
The Wadi Turabah Nature Reserve is a protected area in the Makkah Region of southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is situated about 150 km (93 mi) south-east of Ta'if and 80 km (50 mi) north of al Bahah, sandwiched between the road between Taif and al Bahah and the road running along the escarpment between Banu Sa'ad and al Bahah. It adjoins the Jabal Ibrahim/Wadi Buwwah Protected Area, Jabal Ibrahim being a granite mountain rising about 1,000 m (3,300 ft) above the surrounding rocky hills. Wadi Turabah and Jabal Ibrahim have a total area of around 42,000 hectares and the elevation rises from 1,600 m (5,249 ft) to 2,604 m (8,543 ft) at the summit of Jabal Ibrahim.
The Dhofar Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. In a broad sense, they extend from Dhofar Governorate in Oman to Hadhramaut Governorate in Yemen, and are located between the Hajar in the northern part of Oman, and the Sarawat in the western part of Yemen. Otherwise, the range in the eastern part of Yemen, particularly near Mukalla, is referred to as the Hadhramaut or "Mahrat".
The Southern Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets is a tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in Tanzania and Kenya. It includes portions of Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which are designated World Heritage Sites and biosphere reserves for their outstanding wildlife and landscapes. It is one of three Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets ecoregions in eastern Africa.
The Northern Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets are a tropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands ecoregion in eastern Africa. The ecoregion is mostly located in Kenya, extending north into southeastern South Sudan, northeastern Uganda and southwestern Ethiopia and south into Tanzania along the Kenya-Tanzania border.
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 Somali montane xeric shrublands is a desert and xeric scrubland ecoregion in Somalia. The ecoregion lies in the rugged Karkaar Mountains, which run parallel and close to Somalia's northern coast on the Gulf of Aden, and follows coast from Cape Guardafui south to Eyl on the Arabian Sea.
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.
Al Hajar montane woodlands is a temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands ecoregion in the Hajar Mountains of the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, which extends across portions of Oman and the U.A.E.
Sideroxylon mascatense is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapotaceae.
Asir National Park is a national park in Saudi Arabia's Asir region. It was established in 1981.
Euphorbia larica is a semi-succulent shrub or subshrub native to southern Iran and the south-eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. In the United Arab Emirates it is commonly known as isbaq.
1 2 3 "Southwestern Arabian foothills savanna". DOPA explorer. Accessed 31 January 2021.
↑ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545 .
↑ Guba I., Glennie K. (1998) Geology and Geomorphology. 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_3
↑ Fisher M., Membery D.A. (1998) Climate. 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_2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 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
↑ Kilian, Norbert, Peter Hein and Mohamed Ali Hubaishan (2004). "Further Notes on the Flora of the Southern Coastal Mountains of Yemen". Willdenowia Bd. 34, H. 1 (Aug. 25, 2004), pp. 159-182.
↑ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545,
↑ Hall, M., Neale, S., Al‐Abbasi, T.M. and Miller, A.G. (2010). "Arabia's tallest trees: ecology, distribution and conservation status of the regionally endangered tree species Mimusops laurifolia." Nordic Journal of Botany, 28: 240-245. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1051.2009.00560.x
↑ BirdLife International (2021) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Jabal Fayfa. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 03/02/2021.
↑ Boug, Ahmed & Islam, Zafar-ul & Shehri, Abdulla. (2009). Captive-breeding of Arabian Leopard in Saudi Arabia.
↑ Michael C. Jennings, Amar R. H. Al-Momen and Jabr S. Y. Haresi (2010). The Birds of the Highlands of South-West Saudi Arabia and Adjacent Parts of the Tihama: July 2010 (ABBA SURVEY 42). December 2010. Accessed 1 February 2021.
↑ BirdLife International (2021) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Raydah escarpment. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 03/02/2021.
↑ BirdLife International (2021) Endemic Bird Areas factsheet: South-west Arabian mountains. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 01/02/2021.
↑ Andrew Gardner, Theodore Papenfuss, Steven Anderson, Matthias Stöck, Sergius Kuzmin. 2004. Duttaphrynus scorteccii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T54758A11200539. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T54758A11200539.en. Downloaded on 13 February 2021.
↑ Wilkinson, Tony (1999). “Settlement, Soil Erosion and Terraced Agriculture in Highland Yemen: a Preliminary Statement.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, vol. 29, 1999, pp. 183–191.
↑ Nabhan, Gary Paul (2014). Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: a Spice Odyssey. University of California Press, 2014.
↑ Ghazanfar S.A. (1998) Plants of Economic Importance. 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_11
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