Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T04:40:43.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth of Bauhinia thonningii trees and saplings over a decade in a savanna in Zambia: interactions of climate, fire and source of regeneration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Emmanuel Ngulube Chidumayo
Emmanuel Ngulube Chidumayo*
Affiliation:
Biological Sciences Department, University of Zambia, P.O. Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia
*
Email: enc49dec@yahoo.com or chichi@zamtel.zm
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present study investigated how climate and plant size affect the growth of Bauhinia thonningii and how fire and source of regeneration (grown from coppice versus seedlings) might modify the results. The study was conducted over a period of 10 y, from 1997 to 2007, at a savanna site in central Zambia. Trees were marked and monitored throughout the entire period; they showed a phase of declining growth (1998–2003) and a phase of low growth (2004–2007). During the phase of declining growth autocorrelation was high but either weakened or disappeared during the phase of low growth. After adjusting data for autocorrelation, climate factors and tree size accounted for between 14% and 35% of the variation in annual tree radial growth. However, the growth responses of trees to climate factors and tree size varied with the source of regeneration (i.e. coppice or seedling) and fire treatment. Trees of seedling origin were only affected by climate factors and tree size when exposed to annual burning whereas all trees of coppice origin were significantly affected by climate factors and tree size, regardless of the fire treatment. However, basal radial growth of saplings that were monitored for 4 y (2003–2007) was significantly influenced by maximum temperature and rainfall that accounted for 33–47% of the variance in annual radial growth under fire protection. Saplings recovered from shoot die-back during the cool dry season by resprouting in the hot dry season and this annual die-back slowed the height growth of B. thonningii saplings.

Keywords

autocorrelated growthclimate factorscoppicefireradial growthsavannaseedlingsshoot die-backZambia
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , July 2008 , pp. 407 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

BAKER, T. R., AFFLUM-BAFFOE, K., BURSLEM, D. F. R. P. & SWAINE, M. D. 2002. Phenological differences in tree water use and the timing of tropical forest inventories: conclusions from patterns of dry season diameter change. Forest Ecology and Management 171:261–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BAKER, T. R., BURSLEM, D. F. R. P. & SWAINE, M. D. 2003. Associations between tree growth, soil fertility and water availability at local and regional scales in Ghanaian tropical rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 19:109–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BALFOUR, D. A. & MIDGLEY, J. J. 2006. Fire induced stem death in an African acacia is not caused by canopy scorching. Austral Ecology 31:892–896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BERRYMAN, A. A. 1997. On the principles of population dynamics and theoretical models. American Entomologist 43:147–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BOND, W. J. & MIDGLEY, J. J. 2001. Ecology of sprouting in woody plants: the persistence niche. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16:45–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
BREITSPRECHER, A. & BETHEL, J. S. 1990. Stem-growth periodicity of trees in a tropical wet forest of Costa Rica. Ecology 71:1156–1164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BRIENEN, R. J. W., ZUIDEMA, P. A. & DURING, H. J. 2006. Autocorrelated growth of tropical forest trees: unraveling patterns and quantifying consequences. Forest Ecology and Management 237:179–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHIDUMAYO, E. N. 1989. Early post-felling response of Marquesia woodland to burning in the Zambian Copperbelt. Journal of Ecology 77:430–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHIDUMAYO, E. N. 1991. Seedling development of the miombo woodland tree Julbernardia globiflora. Journal of Vegetation Science 2:21–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHIDUMAYO, E. N. 2007. Growth responses of an African savanna tree, Bauhinia thonningii Schumacher, to defoliation, fire and climate. Trees 21:231–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CODER, K. D. 2006. Cool trees: surviving cold temperatures. Arborist-News February 2006:12–18.Google Scholar
CONDIT, R., HUBBELL, S. P. & FOSTER, R. B. 1993. Mortality and growth of a commercial hardwood él cativo', Prioria copaifera, in Panama. Forest Ecology and Management 62:107–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAUBENMIRE, R. 1972. Phenology and other characteristics of tropical semi-deciduous forest in north-western Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 60:147–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FUJIWARA, M., KENDALL, B. E. & NISBET, R. M. 2004. Growth autocorrelation and animal size variation. Ecology Letters 7:106–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GIGNOUX, J., CLOBERT, J. & MENAUT, J.-C. 1997. Alternative fire resistance strategies in savanna trees. Oeclogia 110:576–583.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GRUNDY, I. M. 2006. Age determination of miombo species Brachystegia spiciformis (Leguminosae – Caesalpinoideae) in Zimbabwe using growth rings. South African Forestry Journal 206:5–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HENNENBERG, K. J., ORTHMANN, B., POREMBSKI, S. & WORBES, M. 2006. Climate-growth relationships of tropical species in West Africa and their potential for climate reconstruction. Global Change Biology 12:1139–1150.Google Scholar
HIGGINS, S. I., BOND, W. J. & TROLLOPE, W. 2000. Fire, resprouting and variability: a recipe for grass-tree coexistence in savanna. Journal of Ecology 88:213–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOFFMANN, W. A. & SOLBRIG, O. T. 2003. The role of topkill in the differential response of savanna woody species to fire. Forest Ecology and Management 180:273–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE). 2001. Climate change 2001: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1000 pp.Google Scholar
KING, D. A., DAVIES, S. J. & NOOR, N. S. M. 2006. Growth and mortality are related to adult tree size in a Malaysian mixed dipterocarp forest. Forest Ecology and Management 223:152–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KOHYAMA, T., KUBO, T. & MACKLIN, E. 2005. Effect of temporal autocorrelation on apparent growth rate variation in forest tree census data and an alternative distribution function of tree growth rate. Ecological Research 20:11–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LARCHER, W. 2005. Climatic constraints drive the evolution of low temperature resistance in woody plants. Journal of Agricultural Meteorology 61:189–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MURPHY, P. G., LUGO, A. E., MURPHY, A. J. & NEPSTAD, D. C. 1995. The dry forests of Puerto Rico's south coast. Pp. 178–209 in Lugo, A. E. & Lowe, C. (eds.). Tropical forest: management and ecology. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NATH, C. D., DATTARAJA, H. S., SURESH, H. S., JOSHI, N. V. & SUKUMAR, R. 2006. Patterns of tree growth in relation to environmental variability in the tropical dry deciduous forest at Mudumalai, southern India. Journal of Biosciences 31:651–669.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PELISSIER, R. & PASCAL, J.-P. 2000. Two-year tree growth patterns investigated from monthly growth records using dendrometer bands in a wet evergreen forest in India. Journal of Tropical Ecology 16:429–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PFISTER, C. A. & STEVENS, F. R. 2002. The genesis of size variability in plants and animals. Ecology 83:59–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRIOR, L. D., EAMUS, D. & BOWMAN, D. M. J. S. 2004. Tree growth rates in north Australian savanna habitats: seasonal patterns and correlations with leaf attributes. Australian Journal of Botany 52: 303–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRIOR, L. D., BROOK, B. W., WILLIAMS, R. J., WERNER, P. A., BRADSHAW, C. J. A. & BOWMAN, D. M. J. S. 2006. Environmental and allometric drivers of tree growth rates in a north Australian savanna. Forest Ecology and Management 234:164–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RUTHERFORD, M. C., POWRIE, L. W. & SCHULZE, R. E. 1999. Climate change in conservation areas of South Africa and its potential impact on floristic composition: a first assessment. Diversity and Distributions 5:253–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SWAINE, M. D., HALL, J. B. & ALEXANDER, I. J. 1987. Tree population dynamics at Kade, Ghana (1968–1982). Journal of Tropical Ecology 3:331–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TRAPNELL, C. G. 1959. Ecological results of woodland burning experiment in Northern Rhodesia. Journal of Ecology 47:129–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TROUET, V., COPPIN, P. & BEECHMAN, H. 2006. Annual growth ring patterns in Brachystegia spiciformis reveal influence of precipitation on tree growth. Biotropica 38:75–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WALKER, B. H., STONE, L., HENDERSON, L. & VERNEDE, M. 1986. Size structure analysis of the dominant trees in a South African savanna. South African Journal of Botany 52: 397–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WERNER, P. A. 2005. Impact of feral water buffalo and fire on growth and survival of mature savanna trees: an experimental field study in Kakadu National Park, northern Australia. Austral Ecology 10:625–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WERNER, P. A. & PRIOR, L. D. 2007. Tree-piping termites and growth and survival of host trees in savanna woodland of north Australia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 23:611–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WORBES, M., STASCHEL, R., ROLOFF, A. & JUNK, W. J. 2003. Tree ring analysis reveals age structure, dynamics and wood production of a natural forest stand in Cameroon. Forest Ecology and Management 173:105–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar