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29-571: A speciality sold in the market is afitin (soy dawa-dawa/soy iru), which is traditionally and somewhat famously in Benin made by women in the region. It is a protein-rich fermented food widely used in West Africa as a seasoning. Bohicon has a rather dry tropical savanna climate ( Köppen Aw ) with a lengthy though moderate wet season from March to October and a short dry season from November to February. The wet season divides into two periods:

58-511: A break in rainfall during mid-season when the Intertropical Convergence Zone or monsoon trough moves poleward of their location during the middle of the warm season; Typical vegetation in these areas ranges from moist seasonal tropical forests to savannahs . When the wet season occurs during the warm season, or summer , precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The wet season

87-570: A hotter first half from March to June and a cooler, foggy second half somewhat influenced by the northern extension of the Benguela Current . Bohicon is one of the 77 official Communes of Benin . The city is located 9 kilometres from Abomey but the commune is divided into arrondissements: 07°12′00″N 02°04′00″E  /  7.20000°N 2.06667°E  / 7.20000; 2.06667 Tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate

116-464: A tropical monsoon climate or have more pronounced dry season(s). It is impossible for a tropical savanna climate to have more than 2,500 mm (98 in) as such would result in a negative value in that equation. In tropical savanna climates, the dry season can become severe, and often drought conditions prevail during the course of the year. Tropical savanna climates often feature tree-studded grasslands due to its dryness, rather than thick jungle. It

145-534: Is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories Aw (for a dry "winter") and As (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than 60 mm (2.4 in) of precipitation and also less than 100 − ( Total Annual Precipitation (mm) 25 ) {\textstyle 100-\left({\frac {\text{Total Annual Precipitation (mm)}}{25}}\right)} mm of precipitation. This latter fact

174-500: Is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves and vegetation grows significantly due to the wet season supplementing flora, leading to crop yields late in the season. Floods and rains cause rivers to overflow their banks, and some animals to retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients are washed away and erosion increases. The incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures. Animals have adaptation and survival strategies for

203-588: Is also prevalent in sections of northern Australia , the Pacific Islands, in extreme southern North America in south Florida , and some islands in the Caribbean . Most places that have this climate are found at the outer margins of the tropical zone , but occasionally an inner-tropical location (e.g., San Marcos , Antioquia , Colombia ) also qualifies. Similarly, the Caribbean coast, eastward from

232-445: Is in a direct contrast to a tropical monsoon climate , whose driest month sees less than 60 mm (2.4 in) of precipitation but has more than 100 − ( Total Annual Precipitation (mm) 25 ) {\textstyle 100-\left({\frac {\text{Total Annual Precipitation (mm)}}{25}}\right)} of precipitation. In essence, a tropical savanna climate tends to either see less overall rainfall than

261-585: Is that the tropics represent a ' Garden of Eden ', a heaven on Earth, a land of rich biodiversity or a tropical paradise. The alternative is that the tropics consist of wild, unconquerable nature. The latter view was often discussed in old Western literature more so than the first. Evidence suggests over time that the view of the tropics as such in popular literature has been supplanted by more well-rounded and sophisticated interpretations. Western scholars tried to theorise why tropical areas were relatively more inhospitable to human civilisations than colder regions of

290-403: Is the case East Africa (Mombasa, Kenya, Somalia), Sri Lanka ( Trincomalee ) and coastal regions of Northeastern Brazil (from São Luís through Natal to Maceió ), for instance. The difference between "summer" and "winter" in such tropical locations is usually so slight that a distinction between an As and Aw climate is trivial. In most places that have tropical wet and dry climates, however,

319-560: Is this widespread occurrence of tall, coarse grass (called savanna) which has led to Aw and As climates often being referred to as the tropical savanna. However, there is some doubt whether tropical grasslands are climatically induced. Additionally, pure savannas, without trees, are the exception rather than the rule. There are generally four types of tropical savanna climates: Tropical savanna climates are most commonly found in Africa , Asia , Central America , and South America . The climate

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348-428: Is used in place of Aw if the dry season occurs during the time of higher sun and longer days. This is typically due to a rain shadow effect that cuts off ITCZ-triggered summer precipitation in a tropical area while winter precipitation remains sufficient to preclude a hot semi-arid climate ( BSh ) and temperatures in the summer months are warm enough to preclude a Mediterranean climate ( Csa/Csb ) classification. This

377-605: The Andes as far south as the northernmost parts of Chile and Perú . The climate is changing in the tropics, as it is in the rest of the world. The effects of steadily rising concentrations of greenhouse gases on the climate may be less obvious to tropical residents, however, because they are overlain by considerable natural variability. Much of this variability is driven by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) . The Tropics has warmed by 0.7–0.8 °C over

406-930: The Gulf of Urabá on the Colombia – Panamá border to the Orinoco river delta , on the Atlantic Ocean (ca. 4,000 km (2,485 mi)), have long dry periods (the extreme is the BSh climate (see below), characterized by very low, unreliable precipitation, present, for instance, in extensive areas in the Guajira , and Coro, western Venezuela, the northernmost peninsulas in South America, which receive <300 mm (11.8 in) total annual precipitation, practically all in two or three months). This condition extends to

435-677: The Lesser Antilles and Greater Antilles forming the Circumcaribbean dry belt. The length and severity of the dry season diminishes inland (southward); at the latitude of the Amazon river—which flows eastward, just south of the equatorial line—the climate is Af. East from the Andes, between the arid Caribbean and the ever-wet Amazon, are the Orinoco river Llanos or savannas , from where this climate takes its name. Sometimes As

464-732: The Pantropic . The system of biogeographic realms differs somewhat; the Neotropical realm includes both the Neotropics and temperate South America, and the Paleotropics correspond to the Afrotropical , Indomalayan , Oceanian , and tropical Australasian realms . Flora are plants found in a specific region at a specific time. Some well-known plants that are exclusively found in, originate from, or are often associated with

493-579: The Waterberg Biosphere of South Africa , and eastern Madagascar rainforests. Often the soils of tropical forests are low in nutrient content, making them quite vulnerable to slash-and-burn deforestation techniques, which are sometimes an element of shifting cultivation agricultural systems. In biogeography , the tropics are divided into Paleotropics (Africa, Asia and Australia) and Neotropics (Caribbean, Central America, and South America). Together, they are sometimes referred to as

522-719: The axial tilt of the Earth . The Tropic of Cancer is the Northernmost latitude from which the Sun can ever be seen directly overhead , and the Tropic of Capricorn is the Southernmost. This means that the tropical zone includes everywhere on Earth which is a subsolar point at least once during the solar year . Thus the maximum latitudes of the tropics have equal distances from the equator on either side. Likewise, they approximate

551-465: The temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's axial tilt ; the width of the tropics (in latitude) is twice the tilt. The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone (see geographical zone ). Due to the overhead sun, the tropics receive the most solar energy over the course of the year, and consequently have

580-399: The angle of the Earth's axial tilt. This angle is not perfectly fixed, mainly due to the influence of the moon, but the limits of the tropics are a geographic convention, and their variance from the true latitudes is very small. Many tropical areas have both a dry and a wet season. The wet season , rainy season or green season is the time of year, ranging from one or more months when most of

609-407: The average annual rainfall in a region falls. Areas with wet seasons are disseminated across portions of the tropics and subtropics , some even in temperate regions. Under the Köppen climate classification , for tropical climates , a wet-season month is defined as one or more months where average precipitation is 60 mm (2.4 in) or more. Some areas with pronounced rainy seasons see

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638-505: The dry season occurs during the time of lower sun and shorter days because of reduction of or lack of convection , which in turn is due to the meridional shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone during the entire course of the year, based on which hemisphere the location sits. Tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator , where the sun may shine directly overhead . This contrasts with

667-460: The geographic region; these usages ought not be confused. The Earth's axial tilt is currently around 23.4° , and therefore so are the latitudes of the tropical circles , marking the boundary of the tropics: specifically, ±23°26′09.8″ (or 23.43605°). The northern one is called the Tropic of Cancer , and the southern is the Tropic of Capricorn . As the Earth's axial tilt changes, so too do

696-606: The highest temperatures on the planet. Even when not directly overhead, the sun is still close to overhead throughout the year, therefore the tropics also have the lowest seasonal variation on the planet; "winter" and "summer" lose their contrast. Instead, seasons are more commonly divided by precipitation variations than by temperature variations. The tropics maintain wide diversity of local climates, such as rain forests , monsoons , savannahs , deserts , and high altitude snow-capped mountains . The word "tropical" can specifically refer to certain kinds of weather , rather than to

725-961: The last century—only slightly less than the global average—but a strong El Niño made 1998 the warmest year in most areas, with no significant warming since. Climate models predict a further 1–2 °C warming by 2050 and 1–4 °C by 2100. Tropical plants and animals are those species native to the tropics. Tropical ecosystems may consist of tropical rainforests , seasonal tropical forests , dry (often deciduous) forests , spiny forests, deserts , savannahs, grasslands and other habitat types. There are often wide areas of biodiversity , and species endemism present, particularly in rainforests and seasonal forests. Some examples of important biodiversity and high-endemism ecosystems are El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico , Costa Rican and Nicaraguan rainforests, Amazon Rainforest territories of several South American countries, Madagascar dry deciduous forests ,

754-516: The tropical and polar circles . The tropics constitute 39.8% of Earth's surface area and contain 36% of Earth's landmass . As of 2014 , the region was home also to 40% of the world's population , and this figure was then projected to reach 50% by 2050. Because of global warming , the weather conditions of the tropics are expanding with areas in the subtropics , having more extreme weather events such as heatwaves and more intense storms. These changes in weather conditions may make certain parts of

783-469: The tropics include: Tropicality refers to the image of the tropics that people from outside the tropics have of the region, ranging from critical to verging on fetishism. Tropicality gained renewed interest in geographical discourse when French geographer Pierre Gourou published Les pays tropicaux ( The Tropical World in English), in the late 1940s. Tropicality encompassed two major images. One,

812-568: The tropics uninhabitable. The word "tropic" comes via Latin from Ancient Greek τροπή ( tropē ), meaning "to turn" or "change direction". The tropics are defined as the region between the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at 23°26′09.8″ (or 23.43605°) N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at 23°26′09.8″ (or 23.43605°) S; these latitudes correspond to

841-726: The wetter regime. The previous dry season leads to food shortages into the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature. However, regions within the tropics may well not have a tropical climate. Under the Köppen climate classification, much of the area within the geographical tropics is classed not as "tropical" but as "dry" ( arid or semi-arid ), including the Sahara Desert , the Atacama Desert and Australian Outback . Also, there are alpine tundra and snow-capped peaks, including Mauna Kea , Mount Kilimanjaro , Puncak Jaya and

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