The Llanos' main river is the Orinoco, which runs from west to east through the ecoregion and forms part of the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The Orinoco is the major river system of Venezuela.[3]
Climate
The ecoregion has a tropical savanna climate that grades into a tropical monsoon climate in the Colombian Llanos. Rainfall is highly seasonal, with a rainy season from April to November, and a dry season between December and March. The wettest months are typically June and July. Rainfall varies across the ecoregion, from up to 3,000 millimetres (120 in) per year in the southwest, 1,200 to 1,600 millimetres (47 to 63 in) in Apure State, and 800 to 1,200 millimetres (31 to 47 in) per year in the Llanos of Monagas State in the northeast. Mean annual temperature is 27 °C or 80.6 °F, and the average monthly temperature varies little throughout the year; the lowest-temperature months (June, July, December, and January) are only 2 °C or 3.6 °F cooler than the hottest months.[2]
Flora
The plant communities in the Llanos include open grasslands, savannas with scattered trees or clumps of trees, and small areas of forest, typically gallery forests along rivers and streams. There are seasonally flooded grasslands and savannas (llano bajo) and grasslands and savannas that remain dry throughout the year (llano alto).[2]
During the rainy season from May to October, parts of the Llanos can flood up to a meter. This turns some savannass and grasslands into temporary wetlands, comparable to the Pantanal of central South America. This flooding also creates habitat for water birds and other wildlife. These seasonally flooded grasslands and savannas, known as llano bajo, typically have richer soils. They are characterized by the grass Paspalum fasciculatum. Trees include the palm Copernicia tectorum and gallery forest species.[2]
Indigenous peoples of the Llanos include the Guahibo in the western Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela, and the Yaruro in the eastern Llanos in Venezuela.
Cattle raising and farming
The primary economic activity in the Llanos since the Spanish colonial era is the herding of millions of cattle. An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz depicts sparsely populated open grazing lands with cattle and palm trees.[5] The term llanero ("plainsman") became synonymous with the cowhands that took care of the herds, and had some cultural similarities with the gauchos of the Pampas or the vaqueros of Spanish and Mexican Texas.
Decades of extensive cattle raising has altered the ecology of the Llanos. Grasslands and savannas are frequently burned to make them more suitable for grazing and eliminate trees and shrubs. Non-native grasses have been introduced for cattle fodder, including the African grass Melinis minutiflora, and now cover large areas.[2]
Agriculture, particularly rice and maize, now cover extensive areas, including rice fields in former seasonal wetlands.
Oil and gas
In Los Llanos, the governments of Venezuela and Colombia had developed a strong oil and gas industry in the zones of Arauca, Casanare, Guárico, Anzoátegui, Apure and Monagas. The Orinoco Belt, entirely in Venezuelan territory, consists of large deposits of extra heavy crude (oil sands). The Orinoco belt oil sands are known to be one of the largest, behind that of the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada. Venezuela's non-conventional oil deposits of about 1,200 billion barrels (1.9×1011 m3), found primarily in the Orinoco oil sands, are estimated to approximately equal the world's reserves of conventional oil.[citation needed]
^ abEric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b. [1]
^UNEP-WCMC (2020). Protected Area Profile for Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) from the World Database of Protected Areas, September 2020. Available at: www.protectedplanet.net
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