Savanna (or Tropical Grassland)

The savanna ecosystem is one of the largest terrestrial biomes in the world with a remarkable expanse throughout tropical environments of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is estimated that throughout the world savannas cover a total land area of about 12.7 million square miles (33 million square kilometers). The term savanna is of Amerindian origin used in Haiti and Cuba to denote a treeless plain. This term was later incorporated into Spanish. Although there is no agreement on a single definition for this biome, the term is broadly used to describe all tropical and subtropical ecosystems characterized by continuous herbaceous cover of heliophilous grasses that show seasonality related to water and temperature and in which woody species are significant but do not form ...