# SOIL

Soils. Soils vary according to bedrock and edaphic conditions. In general, however, laterization is the dominant soil-forming process and low fertility oxisols can be expected.

Regional expressions.

- East African savannas are typically, perhaps stereotypically, acacia savannas. Many survive in the famous game parks of Kenya and Tanzania, and also those of Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia. The savannas are actually a mosaic of communities controlled by fire and grazing pressures.
  - The famous Serengeti Plains in Tanzania are a grass savanna developed on droughty but nutrient-rich volcanic sands.

- The llanos of the Orinoco basin of Venezuela and Columbia are grass savannas maintained by the annual flooding of the Orinoco River and long periods of standing water that inhibit the growth of most trees.

- Brazil's cerrado is an open woodland of short-stature, twisted trees. It is species-rich, second only to the tropical rainforest in plant diversity. There are many endemic species, and several plants have adaptations to tolerate the high aluminum content of soils resulting from laterization on the ancient Gondwanan Shield of South America.

- The pine savannas of Belize and Honduras, in Central America, occur on sandy soils.

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