Displaying items by tag: semiarid
Tuesday, 21 September 2021 09:37
Vegetation - Class 6 Social Studies Revision Notes
What is Vegetation?
- Vegetation refers to all plant cover on the surface of the earth It cosists of grasses,trees,bushes,thickets and shrubs
- Vegetation can either be natural or planted
Types of Vegetation in Eastern Africa
- Tropical rainforest vegetation
- Savannah woodland
- Savannah grassland
- Mountain vegetation
- Swamp vegetatio
- Desert and semi-desert
- Mangrove vegetation
-
Tropical rainforest vegetation
- Also called equatorial vegetation
- Found in equatorial climatic region
Characteristics- Tall trees that form canopies
- Vegetation is evergreen
- Trees have straight trunks
- Trees have broad leaves
- Trees have buttress roots
- Forests are thick and dense
- Trees are mainly hardwood e.g.oak, teak, mvule, mahogany, ebony, camphor,obeche, iroko, heartwood, ironwood, rosewood, sapele, limba, okoune
-
Savannah woodland
- Comes immediately after tropical rainforests
- Mainly consist of trees
Characteristics- Trees are of medium height
- Trees are widely spaced compared to equatorial
- Trees are decidiuos
- Tall grass between the trees
- Tree tops are umbrella shaped
- Common trees are acacia and baobao
- Trees are deep rooted and have thick barks
- Examples of woodland savannah
- Miombo woodland in central tanzania
- Shimba hills forests in kwale county
- Southern sudan
- Karamoja district of uganda
-
Savannah grassland
- Mainly consist of grass and few scattered trees
Characteristics- Drought resistant vegetation
- Grass may grow upto 2m
- Tall elephant grass
- Few scattered trees
- Trees have thick barks
- Trees have thorny leaves
- Main trees are baobab,acacia, cacti, euphobia
- Mainly consist of grass and few scattered trees
-
Swamp vegetation
- Common in swampy regions
- Mainly grows in poorly drained areas
- Main vegetation are;a. Papyrus reeds
- Water lilies
- Found in
- South sudan Bahr-El-Ghazal-Sudd swamp
- L. kyoga in Uganda
- Malagarasi swamp in Tanzania
- L.amboseli swamp in Kenya
-
Mangrove vegetation
- grows in the mudd salty waters along shores of Indian Ocean
- They have breathing roots(aerial roots)
- Trees are mainly hardwood
- Is found along the shores of idian ocean and mouths of R.ruvuma, R.juba
-
Mountain vegetation
- grows on the slopes of mountains
- is widespread on the winward sides of the mountains
- vegetation changes as altitude increases
- vegetation is mainly influenced by the altitude
- is also called alphine or montane vegetation
-
Semi-desert vegetation
- Found in ares with rainfall between 250mm-500mm
Characteristics- Short scanty thorny bushes
- Short tough and scattered patches of grass
- Vegetation is drought resistant with modified for thorns
- Common plants cactus, baobab and euphorbia
- Found in ares with rainfall between 250mm-500mm
-
Desert vegetation
- Found in areas with rainfall less than 250mm
Characteristics- Stunted plant
- Plants have thorny or needle-like leaves
- Ground is bare
- Plants have thick fleshy stems
- Plants are deep rooted
- Spinky scanty grass
- Found in true deserts e.g.
- Kaisut and chalbi and taru deserts
- Nubain desert
- Ogaden desert
- Found in areas with rainfall less than 250mm
Factors that influences vegetation distribution
- Climate
- Soils
- Relief
- Drainage
- Human activities
- Government policies
Published in
Social Studies Class 6 Notes
Tagged under
Tuesday, 21 September 2021 06:21
Climate - Class 6 Social Studies Revision Notes
- Weather instruments
- Factors that influence climate in Eastern Africa
- Climatic regions of Eastern Africa
What is Climate?
- Climate is the average weather conditions of a place
Weather instruments
- Are devices used to measure and record conditions and changes in the elements of weather Weather refers to the atmospheric conditions of a place at a given time
Weather instrument | Weather element |
Barometer | Air pressure/atmospheric pressure |
Anemometer | Speed of wind |
Windvane | Wind direction |
Hygrometer | Humidity |
Windsock | Strength and wind direction |
Raingauge | Amount of rainfall |
Sunshine recorder | Sunshine intensity |
Thermometer | Temperature |
Factors that influence climate in Eastern Africa
- Latitude
- Relief and altitude
- Nearness to large water bodies
- Prevailing winds
- Shape of the coastline
-
Latitude
- This refers to how far a place is from the equator.
- Eastern sfrica region is between the tropics
- The region receives warm temperatures
- Latitude affects;
- Temperatures
- Rainfall
- Winds
-
Relief(altitude)
- Relief refers to the nature of the land
- Relief refers to the presence of physical features such as hills, mountains, plateau and plains.
- Altitude is the height of a place above sea level
- Altitude influences
- Temperature
- Rainfall
- Wind
- Air pressure
Exercise: Draw a relief rainfall diagram
-
Nearness to large water bodies.
- Areas near large water bodies receives convectional rainfall
- Distance from large water bodies affects rainfall,humidity,temperature and winds breeze.
- Breezes are cool winds meant to lower temperatures of where they blow towards.
Exercise: Draw convectional rainfall and sea and land breezes
-
Prevailing Winds
- Wind is moving air or air in motion
- They transfer water vapour from one area to another.
- Winds that have great effects on climatte of Eastern Africa are seasonal(monsoons)
- North-east monsoons bring short rains
- South-east monsoon brings long rains
-
Shape of the coastline
- Winds blowing parallel to the coast do not cause rainfall
- Winds blowing directly to the coast causes a lot of rainfall
Climatic regions of Eastern Africa
- A climatic region is a large area that experiences more or less similar climatic conditions
- They include:
- The equatorial climatic
- The modified climatic
- The tropical climatic
- Mountain climatic
- Semi arid climatic
- Desert climatic
-
Equatorial climatic region
- Covers
- South Western Uganda
- North Western Tanzania
- Is slightly modified due to altitude and latitude
Characteristics- High rainfall above 1500mm
- Receives convectional rainfall
- Rainfall is well distributed throughout the year
- High temperatures throughout the year
- Annual average temperatures of about 26 ̊ C
- High humidity throughout the year
- Two rainfall peaks between April-May and November-December
- Small range of temperatures
- Covers
-
Modified equatorial climatic region
- is modified because of the high relief(altitude)
- covers;
- Lake region
- Coastal region
- Western Uganda
- Western South Sudan
- Rwanda
- Burundi
Characteristics- High rainfall between 1000m-2000m
- High temperatures due to low altitude
- Convectional rainfall due to nearness to large water bodies
- High humidity due to high rate of evaporation
- Long rains between March-May
- Short rains between October-December
-
Tropical climatic region
- Also called savannah climate
- Is the largest climatic region of Eastern Africa
- It lies between the tropics
- covers;
- Large parts of Tanzania and Ethiopia
- Northern Uganda
- South Sudan
- Nyika Plateau in Kenya
Characteristics- Has hot wet seasons and cool dry seasons
- Cooler seasons have no rainfall hence remains dry
- Hotter seasons receives a lot of rainfall hence they are wet
- Rainfall is between 750mm – 1200mm
- Has two distinct rainy seasons
- Long rains between march-may
- Short rains between september-october
- Temperature average is 15 ̊ C – 15 ̊ C
-
Mountain climatic region
- Experienced on slopes of high mountains and highlands
Characteristics- High relief rainfall betwee 1100mm – 250mm
- Cool/low temperatures due to high altitude
- Leeward sides are cool and dry
- Peaks of high mountains are permanently covered by snow
- Experienced on slopes of high mountains and highlands
-
Semi-arid climatic region
- Covers
- Eastern and northern kenya
- North-Eastern Uganda
- Central sudan
- Eritrea
- Somalia
- Djibouti
- Central Tanzania
Characteristics- Low and unreliable rainfall 250mm – 750mm
- High temperatures throughout the year 21 ̊ C – 28 ̊ C
- Prolonged dry season of over six months
- Low humidity
- High temperatures at day time and low temperatures at night
- Covers
-
Desert climatic region
- Covers
- Sudan
- Northern Ethiopia
- North-Eastern Somalia
- Central part of Northern Kenya
- Parts of Eritrea
- Parts of Djibouti
Characteristics- Low/unreliable rainfall below 250mm per year
- Rainfall is irregular
- High temperatures of upto 40 ̊
- Clear/cloudless skies
- Very high diurnal range of temperatures
- Covers
Published in
Social Studies Class 6 Notes
Tagged under