Aripo savannah is a

tropical savanna Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...

ecosystem in the northeast of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. It is a rare example of savannas formed due to

edaphic Edaphology (from Greek , ''edaphos'', "ground",, '' -logia'') is concerned with the influence of soils on living beings, particularly plants. It is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology includes the stu ...

factors, i.e. the growth of trees is restricted not by climate but by a shallow layer of clay. This impervious

hardpan In soil science, agriculture and gardening, hardpan or soil pan is a dense layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil layer. There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer ...

clay layer restricts the growth of roots and magnifies both seasonal flooding and seasonal drought. These factors combined with regular exposure to the uninterrupted tropical sun make the savannas a hostile environment for most plants and animals.

Although the edaphic layer is distinct, the Aripo savannas is ecologically similar to other tropical hyperseasonal savannas, such as those found within

Gran Sabana La Gran Sabana (, en, The Great Savanna) is a region in southeastern Venezuela, part of the Guianan savanna ecoregion. The savanna spreads into the regions of the Guiana Highlands and south-east into Bolívar State, extending further to the b ...

in Venezuela or

Cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...

in Brazil. In fact, some of the dominant grassland species are shared between all three savannas. The savannas are home to many rare plants, including at least two

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

species: '' Rhynchospora aripoensis'' and '' Xyris grisebachii''. They also provides a habitat for several rare and threatened animals. In the past, the area has been exposed to considerable disturbance due to human activity, but the savannas along with the associated Marsh and Palm forests are now protected within the 1,788 hectare Aripo Savannas Environmentally Sensitive Area.

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Geography of Trinidad and Tobago