What are tropical savannas?
Tropical savannas are landscapes of grass and scattered trees that occur throughout the world’s tropics. Tropical savannas can be almost treeless grasslands or denser woodlands – as long as the canopy cover of the trees is not so dense that it shades out the grass. Note that some people use a narrower definition of tropical savannas, restricted to landscapes that are largely grassland with scattered trees or scrub. Landscapes with a continuous grass layer below and regular tree cover above, as seen in much of far northern Australia, would be called tropical woodland rather than savanna under this defintion. We use the broader definition of tropical savanna that includes both woodlands and grasslands because the ecosystem processes and management issues are similar across both landscapes in north Australia.
