{"id":21914,"date":"2024-03-28T04:50:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T23:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21914"},"modified":"2025-04-06T16:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T10:41:55","slug":"south-east-africa-montane-archipelago-seama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/south-east-africa-montane-archipelago-seama\/","title":{"rendered":"South East Africa Montane Archipelago (SEAMA)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About South East Africa Montane Archipelago (SEAMA)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a newly recognised\u00a0mountainous ecoregion.<\/li>\n<li>It stretches\u00a0across\u00a0northern Mozambique to Mount Mulanje in Malawi, southern Africa\u2019s second-highest mountain.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The ecoregion encompasses 30 granitic inselbergs\u00a0reaching\u2009&gt;\u20091000 m above sea level, hosting the largest (Mt Mabu) and smallest (Mt Lico) mid-elevation rainforests in southern Africa, as well as biologically\u00a0unique montane grasslands.<\/li>\n<li>SEAMA has distinctly\u00a0higher annual rainfall and humidity, especially in the dry season,\u00a0compared to surrounding regions.<\/li>\n<li>Endemic taxa include 127 plants, 45 vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals), and 45 invertebrate species (butterflies, freshwater crabs), and two endemic genera of plants and reptiles.\n<ul>\n<li>This\u00a0endemism\u00a0arose from divergence events coinciding with the\u00a0repeated isolation\u00a0of these mountains from the pan-African forests, together with the mountains\u2019 great age and\u00a0relative\u00a0climatic stability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Since 2000, the\u00a0SEAMA has lost 18% of its primary humid\u00a0forest cover (up to 43% in some sites)\u2014one of the\u00a0highest deforestation rates in Africa.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0major cause of montane forest loss in SEAMA\u00a0is slash and burn shifting agricultural practices, typically used for subsistence food production by local communities, along with charcoal production, for household cooking, and as a source of revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What are Inselbergs?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Inselberg, or\u00a0Monadnock, is an\u00a0isolated, steep-sloped ridge,\u00a0hill, or small mountain that\u00a0stands above\u00a0well-developed plains.<\/li>\n<li>It appears like an\u00a0island rising from the sea.<\/li>\n<li>Inselbergs are\u00a0generally erosional remnants.\u00a0Often, inselbergs are\u00a0composed of\u00a0harder igneous rock (such as granite) that is more\u00a0resistant to erosion. However, inselbergs may also form in sedimentary rocks.<\/li>\n<li>These structures are\u00a0one of several\u00a0varieties\u00a0of landforms called paleoforms that can\u00a0survive with little modification for tens of\u00a0millions of years.<\/li>\n<li>In inselberg landscapes, the\u00a0active erosional processes are\u00a0confined to valley sides and\u00a0valley floors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are vertebrates?<\/h3>\n<p>Vertebrates are a subphylum of animals within the phylum Chordata. They are characterized by the presence of a backbone or vertebral column, which is a series of individual bones (vertebrae) that surround and protect the spinal cord.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/news\/africa\/southern-africa-s-new-ecoregion-brimming-with-undocumented-life-but-in-urgent-need-of-conservation-95244\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Southern Africa\u2019s new ecoregion brimming with undocumented life but in urgent need of conservation<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South East Africa Montane Archipelago (SEAMA) stretches across northern Mozambique to Mount Mulanje in Malawi, southern Africa\u2019s second-highest mountain. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}