I heard Yakko singing the Spanish Savanna is gone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRJpUoBaI… I never even heard of it once.
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A very large savanna-like region has been managed -- sort of like a man-made or man-maintained ecosystem -- in southern Spain and Portugal for over 1,000 years, providing a diversity of livestock and agricultural products. A savanna is a grassy woodland ecosystem.
As with any large, interconnected ecosystem, changes in one component have wide-spread effects in other areas. For example, changes in population and eating habits impact how the resources of the savanna are used. Increased demand for meat has seen a rise in certain game animals for hunting, and this has caused challenges for plant regeneration (especially the oaks trees) and other traditional game habitat. Other economic forces also put pressure on farmers to switch to crops that may pose a higher fire danger, or require more water.
The link below is to a fantastic article that describes the history, uses, and challenges of the Spanish-Portugal savanna.
As with any large, interconnected ecosystem, changes in one component have wide-spread effects in other areas. For example, changes in population and eating habits impact how the resources of the savanna are used. Increased demand for meat has seen a rise in certain game animals for hunting, and this has caused challenges for plant regeneration (especially the oaks trees) and other traditional game habitat. Other economic forces also put pressure on farmers to switch to crops that may pose a higher fire danger, or require more water.
The link below is to a fantastic article that describes the history, uses, and challenges of the Spanish-Portugal savanna.