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Vlei
A vlei (; ) is a shallow minor lake, mostly of a seasonal or intermittent lake, intermittent nature. It even might refer to seasonal ponds or marshy patches where frogs and similar marsh dwellers breed. Commonly, vleis vary in their extent, or even in the presence or absence of water, according to the fall of rain or dryness of the season."Compendium of South African history and geography", by George McCall Theal, Edition: 3 - 18779/ref> In terms of water salinity, vleis may be freshwater, Seawater, saltwater, or brackish. Over time a vlei may degrade into a Dry lake, salt pan or Dry lake, clay pan, such as Dead Vlei or Sossusvlei. Ecology Vleis of various types can be of considerable local ecological importance, harboring many Endemism, endemic and Animal migration, migratory species. Most vleis are too minor to be granted recognition in the form of a name. However, some major vleis are accorded names, for example Rondevlei Nature Reserve, Rondevlei and Zeekoevlei in the Cape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lakes Of South Africa
This is a list of lakes of South Africa. It includes lakes that were formed naturally, and a few wetlands. For artificial lakes such as reservoirs, refer to List of dams and reservoirs in South Africa. For estuaries (river mouths) see List of estuaries of South Africa, or if they are more the lagoon type List of lagoons of South Africa, and for bays see List of bays of South Africa. * A Subterranean lake * B The name ''Sout Pan'' literally translates as ''Salt Pan'', but the lake is not used to harvest salt. See also * List of estuaries of South Africa * List of rivers of South Africa * List of dams and reservoirs in South Africa * List of lagoons of South Africa * List of bays of South Africa * Ports and harbours in South Africa References {{Authority control Lakes of South Africa, * Lists of lakes by country, South Africa Lists of landforms of South Africa, Lakes Lists of tourist attractions in South Africa, Lakes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sossusvlei Aus Der Vogelperspektive
Sossusvlei (sometimes written Sossus Vlei) is a salt and clay pan surrounded by high red dunes, located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, in the Namib-Naukluft National Park of Namibia. The name "Sossusvlei" is often used in an extended meaning to refer to the surrounding area (including other neighbouring ''vlei''s such as Deadvlei and other high dunes). These landmarks are some of the major visitor attractions of Namibia. The name "Sossusvlei" is of mixed origin and roughly means "dead-end marsh". Vlei is the Afrikaans word for "marsh", while "sossus" is Nama for "no return" or "dead end". Sossusvlei owes this name to the fact that it is an endorheic drainage basin (i.e., a drainage basin without outflows) for the ephemeral Tsauchab River. Environment The Sossusvlei area forms part of a wider region of the southern Namib Desert with homogeneous features (about 32.000 km²) extending between the Koichab and Kuiseb rivers. This area is characterized by hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vlaie
In the Hudson Valley of eastern United States, a vlaie, vly or fly is a swamp or marsh. It also applies to creeks and areas in the vicinities. The term appears in place names in areas of Dutch influence, formerly New Netherland. Etymology The terms are from a dialectal form of the Middle Dutch word ' ("valley", spelled ' in Modern Dutch). Unabridged : "from obsolete Dutch dialect (Hudson valley) ''vlei'', from Middle Dutch ''valeye''" However, the semantic shift, meaning shifted to "swamp" when used by New Netherlanders. Variants such as ''vley'' and ''vlei'' are also found. The English spelling of ''vleigh'' is probably under influence of rhymes like ''sleigh'' and ''weigh''. The Afrikaans language, Afrikaans word ' ("shallow lake") is a cognate, descended from the same Middle Dutch word. The ''Vlie'', a channel in Frisia, may not be related, as it is likely from the Latin ''Lacus Flevo, Flevo''. Place names Examples of names of swamps, streams, lakes, and mountains which co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intermittent Lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orothamnus
''Orothamnus'' (Greek 'oros' mountain, 'thamnos' bush) or marsh rose is a monotypic fynbos genus in the family Proteaceae occurring in the Kogelberg and Kleinrivier Mountains of Hottentots-Holland in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is an erect, sparsely branched shrub to 5 m tall and was first depicted by Jean Villet, a Capetonian artist and dealer in natural history specimens, in Curtis's Botanical Magazine 74: plate 4357 in 1848. ''Orothamnus zeyheri'' (after the botanist Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher) is extremely rare and endangered and appears on CITES Appendix I. The plants are short-lived, with an average lifespan of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years, and are readily killed by fire. The seeds, on the other hand, are long-lived and remain viable for over 35 years below ground, where they are deposited by ants, and paradoxically need summer fires to germinate. The pollinating agent is not known. Marsh Roses grow in peaty swamps and seeps at altitudes of 450� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Peninsula
The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Table Bay and the City Bowl of Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south. The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the Glacial period, ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 1.5 million years ago. Soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the Geology of Cape Town#Tertiary to Recent events, emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats, and the undev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vlei Rat
African vlei rats (''Otomys''), also known as groove-toothed rats, live in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Most species live in marshlands, grasslands, and similar habitats and feed on the vegetation of such areas, occasionally supplementing it with roots and seeds. The name "vlei" refers to the South African term for intermittent, seasonal, or perennial bodies of standing water. ''Otomys'' are compact rodents with a tendency to shorter faces and legs than other types of rats. The tails also are shorter than most Muridae, typically between one third and two thirds of the body length. The coat colour varies according to species,The Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals, Jonathan Kingdon (2004) Russel Friedman Books but generally they have the brown-to-grey agouti coats typical of mice and other small wild rodents. Species living in warm or temperate regions tend to have unusually large ears for murids (e.g. ''Otomys irroratus''), whereas some of the alpine species, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecoregions
An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecology, ecological and Geography, geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural community (ecology), communities and species. The biodiversity of flora (plants), flora, fauna (animals), fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. In theory, biodiversity or conservation ecoregions are relatively large areas of land or water where the probability of encountering different species and communities at any given point remains relatively constant, within an acceptable range of variation (largely undefined at this point). Ecoregions are also known as "ecozones" ("ecological zones"), although that term may also refer to biogeographic realms. Three caveats are appropriate for all bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and it often takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether lexemes are cognate. Cognates are distinguished from loanwords, where a word has been borrowed from another language. Name The English term ''cognate'' derives from Latin , meaning "blood relative". Examples An example of cognates from the same Indo-European root are: ''night'' ( English), ''Nacht'' ( German), ''nacht'' ( Dutch, Frisian), ''nag'' (Afrikaans), ''Naach'' ( Colognian), ''natt'' ( Swedish, Norwegian), ''nat'' ( Danish), ''nátt'' ( Faroese), ''nótt'' ( Icelandic), ''noc'' ( Czech, Slovak, Polish), ночь, ''noch'' ( Russian), но� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semantic Shift
Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics. Examples in English * Awful – Literally "full of awe", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "extremely bad". * Awesome – Literally "awe-inducing", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
