Dictionary > Afrotropical realm

Afrotropical realm

Definition
noun
A biogeographic realm that covers Trans-Saharan Africa and Arabia
Supplement
Biogeographic realms are large spatial regions of the Earth’s land surface. Studying biogeographic realms leads to insight especially on biodiversity. It provides understanding on the extent of biodiversity and the factors that affect it. At present, there are about eight realms recognized by the World Wildlife Fund and they are divided according to their ecosystems sharing similar biological evolutionary history and distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. The eight biogeographic realms are Nearctic realm, Palaearctic realm, Neotropical realm, Afrotropic realm, Indomalayan realm, Australasia realm, Oceanian realm, and Antarctic realm.
The Afrotropic realm is a biogeographic realm that has an area of about 22.1 million square kilometres. It includes Trans-Saharan Africa and Arabia. One of the major ecological regions included in Aftrotropic is the forest zone, which is a belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forests that run across most of equatorial Africa’s intertropical convergence zone.1 It also includes the Atlanctic and Sahara deserts in northern Africa and the Arabian desert of the Arabian Peninsula. Another major ecological region found here includes the East African grasslands and savannas, particularly Acacia-Commiphora grasslands and Serengeti.
The Afrotropic realm is formerly called the Ethiopian zone or region.
See also:

Reference(s):

1 Afrotropical realm. Retrieved from ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotropical-realm.


You will also like...

green plant cells
Plant Cells vs. Animal Cells

Plant cells have plastids essential in photosynthesis. They also have an additional layer called cell wall on their cell..

An artistic depiction of Dunkleosteus fish
Fish

The sea was teeming with life. Eventually, through reproduction and continued variation, fish came about. There are over..

Physical growth
Physical Development in Humans

This tutorial elaborates on the physical development of humans, particularly from puberty to adulthood. Read this tutori..

Hominid
The Hominids

The hominid family diversified from the apes around 6 to 8 million years ago. Since then, the evolutionary path has prov..

Developmental Biology
Developmental Biology

Developmental biology is a biological science that is primarily concerned with how a living thing grows and attains matu..

Angle Oak Tree
Seed Plants

Seed plants are vascular plants. They differ from the other vascular plants in producing seeds that germinate into a new..

Related Articles...

No related articles found

See all Related Topics