The Ethiopian montane grasslands and woodlands is a

montane grasslands and shrublands Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than th ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

in Ethiopia. It occupies the middle elevations of the

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...

, between the high-altitude

Ethiopian montane moorlands The Ethiopian montane moorlands is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion in Ethiopia. It lies above 3,000 meters elevation in the Ethiopian Highlands, the largest Afroalpine region in Africa. The montane moorlands lie above the tree line, ...

and the lower-elevation

Ethiopian montane forests The Ethiopian montane forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in eastern Africa. It covers the middle elevations of the Ethiopian Highlands in Ethiopia and extends into neighboring Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti, and Somaliland. The ecore ...

. The ecoregion includes montane grasslands, open woodlands, shrublands, and forest.

Geography

The ecoregion includes the middle elevations of the Ethiopian Highlands, between 1,800 to 3,000 meters elevation. The northern and southern portions of the highlands are separated by the

African Rift Valley The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of ...

Flora

The natural vegetation includes grassland, open woodlands, shrubland including thorn scrub, and areas of forest, particularly in the more humid southern highlands. Dominant woodland trees include the

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

s African juniper (''Juniperus procera'') and ''

Afrocarpus falcatus ''Afrocarpus falcatus'' ( syn. ''Podocarpus falcatus'') is a species of tree in the family Podocarpaceae. It is native to the montane forests of southern Africa, where it is distributed in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Eswatini. Common na ...

'', and the broadleaved ''

Hagenia abyssinica ''Hagenia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plant with the sole species ''Hagenia abyssinica'', native to the high-elevation Afromontane regions of central and eastern Africa. It also has a disjunct distribution in the high mountains of Eas ...

''. Parts of the highlands have been densely populated for centuries, and the vegetation has been much altered by fire, livestock grazing, conversion to agriculture, and overharvesting firewood and timber. Much of the original woodland and forest is now replaced with grassland and shrubland. In other areas plantations of exotic trees have replaced native plant communities. The more humid southern highlands, including the

Harenna Forest The Harenna Forest is a montane tropical evergreen forest in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains. The forest covers the southern slope of the mountains, extending from 1450 to 3200 meters elevation. The Bale Mountains are in Ethiopia's Oromia Region, and f ...

on the south slope of the Bale Mountains, have closed-canopy humid evergreen forests. Lower montane forests grow between 1900 and 2300 meters elevation. Middle montane forests occur between 2300 and 2800 meters. Upper montane forests, which include forests dominated by ''Hagenia abyssinica'' and extensive stands of the bamboo ''

Yushania alpina ''Oldeania alpina'', the African alpine bamboo, is a perennial bamboo of the family Poaceae and the genus ''Yushania''. It can be found growing in dense but not large stands on the mountains and volcanoes surrounding the East African Rift betwee ...

'', grow from 2800 to 3250 meters elevation.Bussmann, Rainer. (1997). The forest vegetation of Harenna escarpment (Bale Province, Ethiopia) - syntxomomy and phytogeographical affinities. ''Phytocoenologia''. 27. 1-23. Evergreen forests are also found in the Simien Mountains.

Fauna

Several bird and mammal species are near-endemic, dwelling in both the montane grasslands and woodlands and the high-elevation Ethiopian montane moorlands. These include the mammals walia ibex (''Capra walie''),

mountain nyala The mountain nyala (Amharic: የተራራ ኒዮላ) (''Tragelaphus buxtoni'') or balbok is an antelope found in high altitude woodland in a small part of central Ethiopia. It is a monotypic species (without any identified subspecies) first de ...

(''Tragelaphus buxtoni''), and

gelada baboon The gelada (''Theropithecus gelada'', am, ጭላዳ, translit=č̣əlada), sometimes called the bleeding-heart monkey or the gelada baboon, is a species of Old World monkey found only in the Ethiopian Highlands, living at elevations of above se ...

(''Theropithecus gelada''). The Bale Mountains vervet (''Chlorocebus djamdjamensis'') is limited to the upper montane belt of the Harenna Forest and other nearby forests in the southern highlands. Its diet consists mostly of ''Yushania alpina'' bamboo shoots.Mekonnen, A., Fashing, P.J., Bekele, A. et al. Dietary flexibility of Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) in southern Ethiopia: effects of habitat degradation and life in fragments. BMC Ecol 18, 4 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-018-0161-4 Near-endemic birds include Rüppell's black chat (''Myrmecocichla melaena'') and

Ankober serin The Ankober serin (''Crithagra ankoberensis'') is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It is a small brown seedeater, about 12 centimeters or 5 inches in length with brown upperparts and its head and breast distinguished with heavy bu ...

(''Crithagra ankoberensis''), which also range into the montane moorlands. The lineated pytilia (''Pytilia lineata'') is the ecoregion's only endemic bird.

Protected areas

4.91% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include Arsi Mountains,

Bale Mountains The Bale Mountains (also known as the Urgoma Mountains) are mountain ranges in the Oromia Region of southeast Ethiopia, south of the Awash River, part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They include Tullu Demtu, the second-highest mountain in Ethiopia ...

, Borana, Chebera Churchura,

Maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that le ...

, and

Simien Mountains The Simien Mountains (Amharic: ስሜን ተራራ or Səmen; also spelled Simen and Semien), in northern Ethiopia, north east of Gondar in Amhara region, are part of the Ethiopian Highlands. They are a World Heritage Site and include the Simien ...

national parks, and Eastern Hararghe and Mizan-Teferi controlled hunting areas, in Ethiopia, and Yob Wildlife Refuge in Eritrea.

References

{{reflist Afrotropical ecoregions Montane grasslands and shrublands Ecoregions of Ethiopia Ecoregions of Eritrea Ecoregions of Sudan Afromontane ecoregions Ethiopian Highlands Grasslands of Ethiopia