Angola in outline: Physiography, climate and patterns of biodiversity

Abstract

Angola is a large country of 1,246,700 km2 on the southwest coast of Africa. The key features of the country’s diverse geomorphological, geological, pedological, climatic and biotic characteristics are presented. These range from the ultra-desert of the Namib, through arid savannas of the coastal plains to a biologically diverse transition up the steep western Angolan Escarpment. Congolian rainforests are found in Cabinda and along the northern border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, with outliers penetrating southwards along the Angolan Escarpment, or up the tributaries of the Congo Basin. Above the escarpment, high mountains rise to 2620 m above sea level, with isolated remnants of Afromontane forests and grasslands. Extensive Brachystegia/Julbernardia miombo moist woodlands dominate the plateaus and peneplains of the Congo and Zambezi basins, and dry woodlands of Colophospermum/Acacia occur in the southeast towards the Cunene River, with Baikiaea/Burkea/Guibourtia woodlands dominating the Kalahari sands of the endorheic basins of the Cubango and Cuvelai rivers. Rainfall varies from lower than 20 mm per year in the southwest to over 1600 mm in the northwest and northeast. At a regional scale, Angola is notable for having representatives of seven of Africa’s nine biomes, and 15 of the continent’s ecoregions, placing Angola second only after South Africa for its diversity of African ecoregions.