Gallery forest

Gallery forest

Gallery forests are evergreen forests that form as corridors along rivers or wetlands and project into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands or deserts.

Gallery forests are able to exist where the surrounding landscape will not support forests for a number of reasons. The riparian zones in which they grow offer greater protection from fire which would kill tree seedlings [J. Biddulph and M Kellman, 1998 "Fuels and fire at savanna-gallery forest boundaries in southeastern Venezuela" Journal of Tropical Ecology 14] In addition the alluvial soils of the gallery habitat are often of higher fertility and better drainage than the soils of the surrounding landscape and have a more reliable water supply at depth. As a result the boundary between gallery forest and the surrounding woodland or grassland is usually very abrupt, with the ecotone being only a few metres [J. S. Beard, 1955. "A Note on Gallery Forests" Ecology 36:2]

Gallery forests have shrunk in extent worldwide as a result of human activities, including domestic livestock preventing tree seedling establishment and the construction of dams and wiers causing flooding or interfering with natural stream flow. In addition to these distrubances gallery forests are also threatened by many of the same processes that threaten savannas.

ee also

* Forest-savanna mosaic
* Bosque
* Riparian forest

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • gallery forest — noun : fringing forest * * * a narrow strip of woods or forest along the banks of a watercourse flowing through open country. Also called fringing forest. [1915 20] * * * gallery forest, a forest that grows alongside a body of water without… …   Useful english dictionary

  • gallery forest — a narrow strip of woods or forest along the banks of a watercourse flowing through open country. Also called fringing forest. [1915 20] * * * …   Universalium

  • gallery forest — noun Date: 1920 a forest growing along a watercourse in a region otherwise devoid of trees …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • gallery forest — noun riparian woodland; a dense forest of mature trees without understory, that lines both banks of a river in an otherwise treeless region …   Wiktionary

  • gallery forest — noun a forest restricted to the banks of a river or stream …   English new terms dictionary

  • Forest-savanna mosaic — is a transition zone between the tropical moist broadleaf forests of equatorial Africa and the drier savannas and open woodlands to the north and south of the forest belt. The forest savanna mosaic consists of drier forests, often gallery forest …   Wikipedia

  • Forest and Dove — Infobox Painting| backcolor=#FBF5DF painting alignment=right image size=300px title=Forest and Dove artist=Max Ernst year=1927 type=Oil on canvas height=100 width=82 height inch=39.37 width inch =32.28 diameter cm = diameter inch = city=London… …   Wikipedia

  • forest — Synonyms and related words: afforestation, afforestational, arboreous, arboretum, back country, backwoods, bed, boondock, boondocks, borderland, bosky, braky, broadcast, brush, bush, bush country, bushveld, bushy, chase, climax forest, cloud… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • Forest Park (CTA station) — Forest Park …   Wikipedia

  • Gallery B&B — (Ганг,Канада) Категория отеля: Адрес: 125 Churchill Road, V8K 2R3 Ганг, Канада …   Каталог отелей

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”