Southern Namib Erg

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Namibia (Africa)

Date of Submission: 03/10/2002
Criteria:
Category: Mixed
Submission prepared by:
Namibia National Commission for UNESCO
Coordinates:
Southern Namib Sand Sea in Western Namibia, from Sesriem (24°30'S/ 15°48'E) to Saddle Hill (25°54'S/ 14°54'E) along the coast to Sandwich Harbour (23°15'S / 14°29'E), inland to the Kuiseb River Canyon at 23°15'S/ 15°45'E.
Ref.: 1746

Description

The Namib Desert is a cool coastal desert situated along the South Atlantic coast of Africa. The waterless coast and inland stretches of the Namib Desert consist in large parts of huge, shifting dunes, which developed millions of years ago, during the Tertiary, as a direct consequence of climatic changes induced by the establishment of the cold Benguella current. Due to the cold ocean water along this coast, thick advective fog banks often obscure the coast and induce a unique climatic regime over parts of the desert. The oceanic upwelling cells along the coast continues to support a rich marine life, which in historic times were the basis of a nomadic subsistence lifestyle of some Namibian people. Shell middens and burial sites at places like Sandwich Harbour, Conception and Meob Bays, and Sylvia Hill provided evidence of the subsistence economy and cultural traditions that these peoples had.



Desert landscapes cover approximately 20 % of continental surfaces on earth and, during arid phases in geological history,. have even been bigger. Desert surfaces are formed and shaped by interactions of radiant energy, wind, and water, with dry watercourses of varying dimensions presenting characteristic and often spectacular relief patterns, e.g. incised canyons -such as at Sesriem and the middle Kuiseb, and broad floodplains. These watercourses originate from the higher rainfall areas on the African plateau - following heavy rain they transport water, alluvial materials, and debris into the desert. The extensive dune systems cause these watercourses to terminate in undrained depressions that accumulate bodies of water after runoffs, e.g. pans such as Sossusvlei and Tsondabvlei. These watercourses also serve as linear oases to support herds of larger mammals and other organisms in times of extreme aridity and allowed nomadic hunter-gatherers to inhabit the desert margins. Large accumulations of stone tools and hunting blinds along the edges of drainage systems and temporal pans are mute evidence of past habitation.



Most of the Southern Namib Erg is situated on a smooth underlying continental platform rising gradually inland to a distance of about 100 km from the coast. This platform is overlain with extensive stretches of very active, unconsolidated dune sands that is continuously being moved and shaped by wind. This extensive and unbroken sand sea stretches for a distance of approximately 320 km along the coast, and up to 120 km into the interior. This sand sea is one of the greatest unconsolidated sand accummulations of the world, both in area and in height. At some places the aeolian dunes may exceed a height of more than 250 meters above their bases, and represent almost all geomorphological dune classes, including barchan, longitudinal, lee, fore, lunette, parabolic/linguoid, akle, star, and transverse dunes. Within this sand seas, some mountains such as the Hauchab and Guinasib ranges raise as desert inselbergs above the sand, surrounded by extensive pediplains that illustrates the effect of topography within aeolian dune systems.



Though seemingly devoid of life and vegetation, the desert is inhabited by a surprisingly diverse and resilient biota, energized and regulated by interactions between various forces peculiar to arid zones. A large and highly diverse segment of this biota, of more than 250 species, is composed of invertebrate animals, with more than 80 % of these invertebrates being endemic to the Southern Nam ib Erg. A large part of the remaining biota is endemic to the larger Namib Desert area that, together with the strict endemics, provides evidence of continuous evolution along a south to north transect. Since fine, windblown sands sustain hotter temperatures than other desert surfaces, most of the dune inhabitants are active at night when surface microclimates are temporally moderated, though some species show unique physiological and behavioral adaptations to survive even the hottest conditions. In addition, the high incidence of fog towards. the coast has led to unique behavioral adaptations to condense fog in order to harvest water in hyperarid conditions. At night, the abundant life in the dunes show fascinating interactions to illustrate the relative importance of biotic constraints such as predation and competition in desert communities. The Namib desert biota is internationally renowned as primary examples to explain the evolutionary, physiological, behavioral, and ecological processes associated with desert ecosystems world-wide.