Definition: Open shrubland and savanna in the north of Brazil and in Colombia and Venezuela, with low, sparse vegetation growing on sandy soils mostly within terra firme land in the Amazon. It can be of the ‘forested’ type, similar to a gallery forest, ‘wooded’ where the trees are shorter, and finally ‘grassy-woody’, where it occurs in wet plains near rivers and lakes. Amongst the more frequent plant families are the Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae, Clusiaceae, Humiriaceae, Marantaceae, Meliaceae and Rapateaceae.
Comment: Preliminary definition. The semantics and definitions of "mediterranean", "subtropical", "tropical", "temperate", "polar", and similar climate types may be transferred to an "environmental condition" class once the semantics of this class have been established.
Definition: Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France. URL for main institutional website: http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/science/science/sommaire.xsp
