[[File:Nyika miombo.jpg|thumb|300px|Miombo forest on the Nyika Plateau, Malawi]]{{Short description|Central African biome}} '''Miombo woodland''' is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized by the dominant presence of ''Brachystegia,'' ''Julbernardia'' and ''Isoberlinia'' genera of trees, and has a range of climates ranging from humid to semi-arid, and tropical to subtropical or even temperate.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gambiza|first1=J|last2=Bond|first2=W|last3=Frost|first3=P.G.H|last4=Higgins|first4=S|title=Special Section: Land Use Options in Dry Tropical Woodland Ecosystems in Zimbabwe|journal=Ecological Economics|volume=33|issue=3|pages=353–368|doi=10.1016/s0921-8009(00)00145-2|year=2000}}</ref> The trees characteristically shed their leaves for a short period in the dry season to reduce water loss and produce a flush of new leaves just before the onset of the wet season<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ryan |first=Casey M. |last2=Williams |first2=Mathew |last3=Grace |first3=John |last4=Woollen |first4=Emily |last5=Lehmann |first5=Caroline E. R. |date=January 2017 |title=Pre‐rain green‐up is ubiquitous across southern tropical Africa: implications for temporal niche separation and model representation |url=https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.14262 |journal=New Phytologist |language=en |volume=213 |issue=2 |pages=625–633 |doi=10.1111/nph.14262 |issn=0028-646X|hdl=20.500.11820/459f72fd-2194-4be1-8f08-9f1aebd3fac2 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> with rich gold and red colours masking the underlying chlorophyll, reminiscent of autumn colours in the temperate zone.
Miombo woodlands extend across south-central Africa, running from Angola in the west to Tanzania in the east, including parts of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They are bounded on the north by the humid Congolian forests, on the northeast by Acacia–Commiphora bushland, and on the south by semi-arid woodlands, grasslands, and savannas.<ref name = Ribeiro>Ribeiro, N.S., Silva de Miranda, P., Timberlake, J. (2020). Biogeography and Ecology of Miombo Woodlands. In: Ribeiro, N.S., Katerere, Y., Chirwa, P.W., Grundy, I.M. (eds) ''Miombo Woodlands in a Changing Environment: Securing the Resilience and Sustainability of People and Woodlands''. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50104-4_2</ref>
The woodland gets its name from ''miombo'' (plural, singular ''muombo''), the Bemba word for ''Brachystegia'' species. Other Bantu languages of the region, such as Swahili and Shona, have related if not identical words, such as Swahili ''miyombo'' (singular ''myombo''). These woodlands are dominated by trees of subfamily Detarioideae, particularly miombo (''Brachystegia''), ''Julbernardia'' and ''Isoberlinia'', which are rarely found outside miombo woodlands.<ref name = Ribeiro/>
Miombo woodlands can be classified as dry or wet based on the per annum amount and distribution of rainfall.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Abdallah|first1=J. M.|last2=Monela|first2=G. G.|date=2007|title=Overview of Miombo Woodlands in Tanzania|url=http://www.metla.fi/julkaisut/workingpapers/2007/mwp050-02.pdf|journal=Working Papers of Finnish Research Institute|volume=50|pages=9–23}}</ref> Dry woodlands occur in those areas receiving less than 1000 mm annual rainfall, mostly in Zimbabwe, central Tanzania, eastern and southern Mozambique, Malawi, and southern Zambia. Wet woodlands are those receiving more than 1000 mm annual rainfall, mainly located in northern Zambia, eastern Angola, central Malawi, and western Tanzania. Wet miombo generally has a taller canopy (15 metres or more), more tree cover (60% or more ground cover), and greater species diversity than dry miombo.<ref name = Ribeiro/>
==Ecoregions== Three ecoregions are currently recognized.<ref name="Dinerstein">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, [https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix014]</ref> *Angolan wet miombo woodlands – Angola *Central Zambezian wet miombo woodlands – Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia *Dry miombo woodlands – southeastern Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, central and southern Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dry miombo woodlands ecoregion includes the Eastern miombo woodlands and Southern miombo woodlands ecoregions previously delineated by the World Wide Fund for Nature.<ref name = oneearth>Martin, Emma and Neil Burgess. [https://www.oneearth.org/ecoregions/dry-miombo-woodlands/ Dry Miombo Woodlands]. One Earth. Retrieved 14 June 2024.</ref>
==Flora and fauna== [[File:Brachystegia glaucescens.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Foliage and pods of the mountain mfuti, ''Brachystegia glaucescens'']]
Despite the relatively nutrient-poor soil, long dry season, and low rainfall in some areas, the woodland is home to many species, including several endemic bird species. The predominant tree is miombo (''Brachystegia'' spp.). It also provides food and cover for mammals such as the African elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), sable antelope (''Hippotragus niger'') and Lichtenstein's hartebeest (''Sigmoceros lichtensteinii'').<ref>Campbell</ref>
==People== The miombo woodlands are important to the livelihoods of many rural people who depend on the resources available from the woodland<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ryan |first=Casey M. |last2=Pritchard |first2=Rose |last3=McNicol |first3=Iain |last4=Owen |first4=Matthew |last5=Fisher |first5=Janet A. |last6=Lehmann |first6=Caroline |date=2016-09-19 |title=Ecosystem services from southern African woodlands and their future under global change |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2015.0312 |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=371 |issue=1703 |article-number=20150312 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2015.0312 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=4978870 |pmid=27502377}}</ref>. The wide variety of species provides non-timber products such as fruits, honey, mushrooms, fodder for livestock and fuelwood to various different largely Bantu peoples such as the Bemba people, Lozi people, Yao people, Luvale people, Shona people, and Luba people.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *Campbell, Bruce M., ed. 1996. ''The Miombo Transition: Woodlands & Welfare in Africa'', CIFOR, {{ISBN|979-8764-07-2}}
==External links== *{{WWF ecoregion|name=Eastern Miombo woodlands|id=at0706}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20041119164501/http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/forests-grasslands-drylands/map-234.html Earthtrends.wri.org: Map of Miombo forests-grasslands-drylands]
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Category:Miombo Category:Ecoregions of Africa Category:Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Category:Grasslands of Africa Category:Ecoregions of Angola Category:Ecoregions of Burundi Category:Ecoregions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Category:Ecoregions of Malawi Category:Ecoregions of Mozambique Category:Ecoregions of Tanzania Category:Ecoregions of Zambia Category:Ecoregions of Zimbabwe Category:Swahili words and phrases Category:Biota of the Afrotropical realm Category:Afrotropical ecoregions Category:Zambezian region