page_title: Waterberg Biosphere
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Waterberg Biosphere / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Sandrivier range, south of Vaalwater in the Waterberg, Limpopo, South Africa
context_page_description: The Waterberg is a mountainous massif of approximately 654,033 hectare in north Limpopo Province, South Africa.
  The average height of the mountain range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is located just north of the mountain range. The extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion to yield diverse bluff and butte landform. The ecosystem can be characterised as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld. Within the Waterberg there are archaeological finds dating to the Stone Age, and nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of humans.
  Waterberg is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.
context_section_description: There are several sub-habitats within the Waterberg Biosphere, which is fundamentally a dry deciduous forest; according to Hogan: "These sub-habitats include high plateau savanna, specialized shaded cliff vegetation system and riparian zone habitat with associated marshes".
caption: The Sandrivier range near Vaalwater constitutes one section of the Waterberg escarpment. It consists of coarse grained, yellow, cross-bedded sandstone.
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