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698 iSimangaliso Wetlands (St. Lucia Estuary) can deplete fish populations, causing drastic and negative effects on the food chain. Local governments, environmental and human rights groups are doing what they can to stem environmental damage and perhaps to block the building of the Myitsone dam project. There are six additional dam projects proposed for the Irrawaddy River. Already, unregulated mining, deforestation, and erosion have taken a heavy toll here. Burmese activists fear that if the dam project moves forward, its impact will extend to communities downstream that rely on the river flow and adequate nutrients to sustain the rice production on which the country depends. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the China Power Investment Corporation are lobbying persistently to restart construction. William Forbes Andrew Osborn Further Reading Burma Rivers Network. “Irrawaddy River.” 2012. http://www.burmariversnetwork.org/burmas -rivers/irrawaddy.html. Smith, Brian D. and Randall R. Reeves. “River Cetaceans and Habitat Change: Generalist Resilience or Specialist Vulnerability?” Journal of Marine Biology 2012, no. 1 (2012). Smith, Jeff. “Two Rivers: The Chance to Export Power Divides Southeast Asia.” National Geographic Daily News, October 25, 2011. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/ energy/2011/10/111026-mekong-irrawaddy -hydropower-dams. Thant, Mynt-U. Where China Meets India—Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012. iSimangaliso Wetlands (St. Lucia Estuary) Category: Marine and Oceanic Biomes. Geographic Location: Africa. Summary: The iSimangaliso Wetlands is a tidal estuary of unparalleled beauty and diversity, whose Zulu name aptly means “miracle and wonder.” The iSimangaliso Wetlands biome in South Africa is a tidal estuary ecosystem on the Indian Ocean, situated along the northeast coast of the KwaZuluNatal province. It stretches from Kozi Bay in the north to St. Lucia in the south. Virtually the whole of the iSimangaliso Wetlands biome has been incorporated into iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and has been recognized as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). iSimangaliso is a Zulu word meaning “miracle and wonder,” which appropriately describes this beautiful and diverse tidal estuary. One of South Africa’s largest protected areas, it encompasses 1,266 square miles (3,280 square kilometers), and extends 174 miles (280 kilometers) along the coast. The estuary area includes some of the world’s largest forested coastal dunes; they reach up to 656 feet (200 meters) high. The park also includes all of Lake St. Lucia, the St. Lucia and Maputaland Marine Reserves, the Coastal Forest Reserve, and the Kosi Bay Natural Reserve. As a tidal estuary, iSimangaliso has interconnected habitats and wetlands that vary seasonally, with fresh- and marine-water inputs and varied salinity levels. There are swamps along Lake St. Lucia; these and other areas fed by water seeping through the coastal dunes, that provide freshwater habitats year-round, irrespective of the changing salinity of the lake and estuary. There are also swaths of grassland habitat here. Biodiversity The iSimangaliso Wetlands biome is important as a breeding ground for giant leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles. Other species include 100 corals, 1,200 fish, 36 snakes, 80 dragonflies, 110 butterflies, and approximately 520 bird types. Important birds include the sea-eagle, pinkbacked and white-backed pelican, and greater and lesser flamingo, and the fish-eagle. There are 11 animal species endemic to the biome, meaning not found elsewhere, and at least 100 species that iSimangaliso Wetlands (St. Lucia Estuary) 699 are near-endemic; these are also found in other places around South Africa. The large submarine reefs harbor many fish and corals, with particularly strong coral diversity in Sodwana Bay. Whales and dolphins migrate through off-shore waters. Lake St. Lucia, 50 miles (80 kilometers) long and up to 14 miles (23 kilometers) wide, is home to hundreds of hippopotamuses and crocodiles, as well as pelicans, flamingos, ducks, waders, and fish. In addition to modern species, the iSimangaliso Wetlands biome contains a living fossil: the coe lacanth. This is a fish species virtually unchanged from millions of years ago; it was known only from the fossil record and presumed to be extinct—until a live specimen was found off the southeast African coast in 1938. It is still a rare protected fish, but several living specimens have been found and photographed in a submarine canyon off the coast near Sodwana Bay. Threats and Conservation The iSimangaliso Wetlands is vulnerable to anthropogenic changes. Extensive use and alteration of the rivers flowing into Lake St. Lucia for agriculture and other purposes have reduced freshwater flows. At the same time, the wetlands and particularly the lake were subject to drought for more than 10 years, ending in 2011. For much of this time, the estuary was closed off from the Indian Ocean, but due to low freshwater inflow and high evaporation, salinity levels rose throughout the ecosystem here. This led, in June 2009, to a redand-orange algal bloom in parts of Lake St. Lucia that lasted for at least 18 months, which ended only with heavy summer rains in 2011. The extent and persistence of the algal bloom illustrates a likely effect of global warming, and the fragile balance of the wetlands ecosystems. Other threats include damage by excessive tourism and overfishing. As a result of heavy traffic, the wetlands have been zoned into three ecotourism use zones: a zone of low-intensity use in the wilderness, where all visitor access is by foot; a moderate-use zone, where visitors can view wildlife from vehicles, camps, and shelters; and a highintensity use zone, where (in seven clusters) there are roads, interpretative and educational displays, guided walks, accommodations, and other tourist facilities. Overall human activity is confined to one-third of the wetlands here. The iSimangaliso Wetlands biome is relatively well managed under national and provincial regulations. South Africa protects wetlands under the World Heritage Convention Act of 1999. The wetlands also contain four Ramsar sites that recognize the ecological functions of wetlands and their importance as economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational resources. There is intensive management, research, and monitoring of human activity in the wetlands. Sufficient funds A sign warning swimmers not to enter a crocodile habitat in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. About one-third of the park is open to visitors. (Wikimedia/Christian Wörtz) 700 Italian Sclerophyllous and Semi-Deciduous Forests are in place nationally and through internationally-funded projects for the ongoing operation of the wetlands park. Magdalena A. K. Muir Further Reading Saarinen, Jarkko, Fritz Becker, and Haretsebe Manwa, eds. Sustainable Tourism in Southern Africa: Local Communities and Natural Resources in Transition. Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications, 2009. Somers, Michael J. and Matthew Hayward, eds. Fencing for Conservation: Restriction of Evolutionary Potential or a Riposte to Threatening Processes? New York: Springer, 2011. Surhone, Lambert M., Mariam T. Tennoe, and Susan F. Henssonow, eds. iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Beau Bassin, Mauritius: Betascript Publishing, 2001. World Heritage Centre. “iSimangaliso Wetland Park.” http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/914. Italian Sclerophyllous and Semi-Deciduous Forests Category: Forest Biomes. Geographic Location: Europe. Summary: This broadly distributed and diverse mixed forest biome of Mediterranean climates occurs throughout the coast of the Italian peninsula. Although the term Mediterranean refers to a specific region that includes parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the climate of this type—cool or mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers—is actually common to temperate coastal systems throughout the world. As climate is an important determining factor in vegetation, some ecosystems in coastal California and Australia, for example, are actually quite similar structurally and functionally, though quite different compositionally, to the coastal forests typical of the Italian and French coasts and valleys. At low elevations, these coastal forests typically are characterized by a mixed evergreen or semi-deciduous canopy with a diverse understory and herbaceous layer. While superficially similar to other coastal forests, certain local and regional factors, particularly the presence of mountains, make the sclerophyllous (thick-leaved scrub vegetation) and semi-deciduous forest types specific to the Italian peninsula and coastal France a unique biome. This biome covers much of the Italian peninsula (as well as nearby islands, such as Ventotene) and parts of the southern coast of France, a total of 39,500 square miles (102,200 square kilometers). Most regional climatic variation here is the result of mountain ranges near the coast. With increasing altitude, local zones tend to sustain more precipitation increases and lower temperature. Variation in edaphic (soil) conditions is more related to volcanic activity and the underlying bedrock types, which include dolomite, limestone, marl, sandstone, and schist-marl. Thus, it is elevation that primarily dictates forest zonation and volcanic activity, while bedrock type dictates forest composition. Land cover here is a mix of broadleaf deciduous woodland (30 percent), evergreen woodland (30 percent), cropland (30 percent), dry grassland (five percent), and inland water bodies (five percent). Vegetation Forests at the lowest elevations, generally closest to the coasts, are dominated by a mix of evergreen sclerophyllous (hard, waxy) broadleaf species, such as the commercially important cork oak, and deciduous broadleaf species, such as downy oak and Manna ash. At higher elevations further inland, the cooler temperatures and greater precipitation favor deciduous species, and forest compositions shift away from sclerophyllous vegetation. As elevations increase still more, the coldtolerant European beech becomes a dominant species, but the diverse woody flora include the endangered Lobel’s maple and coniferous species like the locally abundant yew and relict populations of silver fir in the Apennine Mountain.