Flooded Grassland and Savanna

Flooded grassland and savanna forms a terrestrial biome in the World Wide Fund for Nature's biogeographic classification, made up of large expanses of grassland that are seasonally or permanently inundated with water. Its plant and animal communities are shaped by fluctuating water levels and distinctive soils, and the biome regularly hosts enormous congregations of migratory and resident waterbirds along with other animals that move between habitats as water availability shifts through the year. It occurs across Asia, Africa, North America and South America. The Everglades of Florida, covering some 7,800 square miles, is the world's largest rain-fed flooded grassland growing on a limestone base, home to roughly 11,000 seed plant species, 25 kinds of orchid, 300 bird species and 150 fish species. Brazil's Pantanal, at over 187,000 square kilometers, is the largest flooded grassland of any kind on Earth and supports more than 260 fish species, 700 birds, 90 mammals, 160 reptiles, 45 amphibians, 1,000 butterfly species and 1,600 plant species. The Lake Chad flooded savanna, the Zambezian flooded grasslands of southern Africa and the Sudd wetland of South Sudan are also counted among the biome's globally outstanding examples.