Eastern Arc Mountains
Eastern Arc Mountains
Mountain range in Udzungwa National Park featuring some of the highest waterfalls in Tanzania, the Sanje Waterfalls.
Image credit: Nikki Cavalieri
The Eastern Arc Mountains are a chain of non-volcanic mountains, stretching from the Taita Hills in Kenya to the Udzungwa Mountains in south-central Tanzania. There are 13 separate mountain blocks in the Eastern Arc: Taita (including Kasigau) in Kenya, North Pare, South Pare, West Usambara, East Usambara, Nguu, Nguru, Uluguru, Ukaguru, Rubeho, Malundwe, Udzungwa, Mahenge in Tanzania.
From the peak of a mountain, the tops of other surrounding vegetated mountains are visible. The faces of the mountains are steep and clouds gather around the peaks.
The Usambara Mountains are the easternmost portion of the Eastern Arc mountain chain; formed two million years ago, they support high biodiversity with lush, tropical rainforest habitat spanning 90 km in length.
Photo: Joachim Huber via Flickr
The Eastern Arc mountains contain a diverse assemblage of habitats and numerous endemic species. The east and south-eastern slopes support wetter forests, and the western and north-western slopes support deciduous woodland at lower elevations and evergreen forests at higher elevations. Montane grasslands and heathlands can dominate the top of higher plateaus. The mist-shrouded escarpments serve as rain catchments. (Burgess et al 2017).
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publications
Burgess, N., Butynski, T. M., Cordeiro, N. J., Doggart, N. H., Fjeldså, J., Howell, K. M., ... & Stuart, S. N. (2007). The biological importance of the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya. Biological conservation, 134(2), 209-231