Images

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5290/5257361303_144caa9b03.jpg

http://www.rohama.org/files/en/content/2009/2/14/852_769.jpg

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_29/1131567277dhf9Ee.jpg

http://imgc.artprintimages.com/images/art-print/jodi-cobb-common-zebras-graze-on-an-african-savanna_i-G-27-2798-HE9OD00Z.jpg

Sources

Sources:

[1] Dr. Gillespie's Geography 5 Lecture 

[2] http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0722

[3] http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/sudanian_savannas.cfm

[4] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1433831908000358
[5] Linda R. Berg, David M. Hassenzahl, Mary C. Hager."Visualizing Environmental Science" 3rd. ed. Wiley Visualizing. September 2010.

Protected Areas and Other Solutions for the Future

There are protected areas for this region. It is reported that the remaining conserved areas are the ones that are protected. The total protected are is over 90,000 square kilometers, which is 6.7% of the total ecoregion. Some examples of the protected area are: Boucle du Baoulé National Park in Mali, the River Gambia N.P. in Gambia, Niokolo-Koba N.P. in Senegal, Kainji Lake N.P. in Nigeria, Mole N.P. in Ghana, and Comoe N.P. in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as the transboundary ‘W’ N.P.s in Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin [1] (worldwildlife.org, 2012). In addition, WWF aims to conserve the habitat in Central and Southern Africa. One example would be the project named the Northern Sudanian Savanna network of protected areas, in which the objective is to preserve the natural resources in the local community [2] (wwf.panda.org, 2012).

Boucle du Baoulé National Park in Mali

 http://evawayus.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/original/B4/B4-62-C2-FA-42-C0-52-0F-41-93-F5-28-4C-96-31-98-12-A0-E7-D5.jpg

Kainji Lake N.P. in Nigeria

http://nationalmirroronline.net/thumbnail.php?file=/Entrance_to_the_Kanji_Lake_National_Park_337511736.jpg&size=article_large

Since most countries have now established protection for these regions [1] (worldwildlife.org, 2012), the conservation status should increase over time. By continuing to preserve this area and finding new methods to obtain wood, such as going to different ecosystems with abundant amount of trees can be a possible solution. As of now, the conservation status is not the greatest for Savannas [3] (Gillespie, 2012) but hopefully it will most likely improve throughout the course of the years.

Source: [1] http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0722

[2] http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/sudanian_savannas.cfm
[3] Dr. Gillespie's Geography 5 Lecture 

Future Prospects?

If no measurements are taken to protect the Western Sudanian Savanna, then humans will continuously cut down trees and hunt animals in this area [1] (worldwildlife.org, 2012). If this occurs, humans will continuously have a negative impact on the ecosystem and animals in this habitat will become endangered or extinct. Hence, the ecosystem will eventually get destroyed.

To improve human impacts on this ecosystem, humans could set up protection zones such as green belts to protect the endangered species and the habitat altogether. Since trees are mostly cut down for agricultural purposes, another possibility to protect the Western Sudanian Savanna might be using other ecosystems for agriculture.

According to the table above, fire, grazing, and cutting has a negative impact on the richness, diversity, and abundance on the species. The table is based off of the species known as Laba. For that matter, the data ultimately indicates that cutting will overall bring a negative impact to the ecosystem (sciencedirect.com, 2008).

Source: [1] http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0722
Table 1: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1433831908000358

Past vs. Present

 (Past)

 (Present)

Before humans were present, annual grasses and trees with thick barks dominated the savanna. Fire is a natural aspect of this ecoregion [1] (Gillespie, 2012). It has been the habitat for some endemic animals such as the white-toothed shrew and the zebra mouse. Although it is reported that there are more than 1000 endemic species of plants in the Sudanian region, the exact number of endemic plants for the West Sudanian Savanna is unknown [2] (worldwildlife.org, 2012).

Humans have impacted the ecoregion by cutting trees for wood, charcoal, and agricultural purposes. In addition, extreme hunting has depleted numerous mammals that were present in this region. Therefore, the habitat of the Western Sudanian Savanna has been overall reduced and degraded. Hence, the human impact on this region was overall ugly. Comparing the two images, it can be inferred that humans have indeed cut down numerous trees during the course of the years. As mentioned previously, we benefitted greatly by using wood and charcoal from this region [2] (worldwildlife.org, 2012).

Sources: [1] Dr. Gillespie's Geography 5 Lecture 

[2] http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0722

Spatial Scale and General Description

The West Sudanian Savanna is afrotropical in terms of ecoregion and 632,000 square miles in area. It stretches from Senegal to the eastern border of Nigeria. It is the yellow band that stretches across West Africa in the map above. The Guinean-Forest Savanna Mosaic is located to the south of this ecoregion and the Sahelian Acacia Savanna is located to the north of it [1] (worldwildlife.org, 2012). Some common animals that can be seen in savannas are zebras, antelopes, giraffes, and elephants. Some common plants would be grasses and trees like acacia. This ecoregion is overall flat as the elevation is somewhere around 200 to 400 meters and has annual rainfall ranging from 600mm to 1000mm [2] (Berg, 2010).

http://media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/30/65330-004-24D9B69C.jpg

http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/TAF1623.jpg

http://www.portraitmagazine.net/images/albums/userpics/10001/endangered8.jpg

http://savannaenvironment.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/acacia.jpg

Source: [1] http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at0722
[2] Linda R. Berg, David M. Hassenzahl, Mary C. Hager."Visualizing Environmental Science" 3rd. ed. Wiley Visualizing. September 2010. pg. 140