science

Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands

Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands rather than just read about it. In short: The Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is a montane woodland ecoregion in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Setting The ecoregion covers an area of 86,900 square kilometers (33,600 sq mi), lying above 2000 meters elevations in the Sarawat Mountains, which include the Asir Mountains of southwestern Saudi Arabia and the Western Highlands of Yemen.

Key takeaways

Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is a montane woodland ecoregion in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula.

Setting The ecoregion covers an area of 86,900 square kilometers (33,600 sq mi), lying above 2000 meters elevations in the Sarawat Mountains, which include the Asir Mountains of southwestern Saudi Arabia and the Western Highlands of Yemen. These mountains run generally north and south, parallel to the Red Sea coast. To the west the mountains drop steeply towards the Red Sea in a series of escarpments, and descend more gradually to the desert plateaus and basins to the east. The mountains generally decrease in elevation towards the north. The highest peak is Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb in Yemen (3,666 meters), which is also the highest on the Arabian Peninsula. Other peaks include Jabal Sawda and Jabal Ferwa in Saudi Arabia, which are the country's highest. Sana'a, Yemen's capital city, is in the ecoregion.

Flora The flora changes with elevation. Evergreen woodland and scrub lies between 2000 and 2500 meters elevation, with Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata and Tarchonanthus camphoratus the predominant trees. Above 2500 meters elevation, cloud forests, composed of large shrubs and small trees, can be found on wetter north-facing slopes, mostly made up of Juniperus procera and Euryops arabicus, covered with the lichen Usnea articulata. On the drier south-facing slopes dwarf-shrub forests of Rubus petitianus, Rosa abyssinica, Alchemilla crytantha, Senecio spp., Helichrysum abyssinicum, Aloe sabae, and Euphorbia ssp. are common. Below 2000 meters, the montane woodlands transition to the drier semi-evergreen open woodlands and thorn scrub of the Southwestern Arabian foothills savanna ecoregion.

Fauna The Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus ssp. nimr) and Arabian wolf (Canis lupus ssp. arabs) are critically endangered. Other mammals include the hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), caracal (Caracal caracal ssp. schmitzi), rock hyrax (Procavia capensis ssp. jayakari), and striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena). Several species of birds are endemic to the mountains of southwestern Arabia. They include Philby's partridge (Alectoris philbyi), Asir magpie (Pica asirensis), Yemen warbler (Curruca buryi), Yemen thrush (Turdus menachensis), Arabian accentor (Prunella fagani), Arabian waxbill (Estrilda rufibarba), Yemen serin (Crithagra menachensis), and Yemen linnet (Linaria yemenensis). Juniper berries are an important food source for the Yemen warbler, Yemen thrush, and Yemen linnet, and all three species nest in the juniper trees. Other native bird species with a wider range include the Arabian woodpecker (Dendrocopos dorae), Arabian wheatear (Oenanthe lugentoides), Arabian serin (Crithagra rothschildi), and Arabian golden-winged grosbeak (Rhynchostruthus percivali). Raptors include the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), Verreaux's eagle (Aquila verreauxii), and Barbary falcon (Falco peregrinus pelegrinoides).

Human use Residents of the mountains have farmed the steep slopes for over 2000 years, creating terraced fields on the steep slopes. Wheat, barley, and sorghum are historically important crops. Overharvesting trees for firewood and timber and intensive grazing by domestic and feral cattle, goats, sheep and camels have reduced and degraded the ecoregion's woodlands. Soil erosion from deforested slopes and abandoned terraces is also a threat. The ecoregion's woodlands been greatly reduced in extent by human activity and livestock grazing. Many of the ecoregion's juniper forests are regenerating poorly. Possible causes include human disturbance, livestock grazing, climate change, and/or infestation of cones by a Tortricid moth.

Protected areas 0.43% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include portions of Saudi Arabia's Asir National Park and Raydah Natural Reserve.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands

In research: Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Afromontane ecoregions, Afromontane forests, Afrotropical ecoregions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands in simple terms?

The Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands is a montane woodland ecoregion in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Setting The ecoregion covers an area of 86,900 square kilometers (33,600 sq mi), lying above 2000 meters elevations in the Sarawat Mountains, which include the Asir Mountains of southwe…

Why does Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands.