- Title
- Above ground woody community attributes, biomass and carbon stocks along a rainfall gradient in the savannas of the central lowveld, South Africa
- Creator
- Shackleton, Charlie M
- Creator
- Scholes, Robert J
- Date Issued
- 2011
- Date
- 2011
- Type
- Article
- Identifier
- vital:6658
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007079
- Description
- Enumeration of carbon stocks at benchmark sites is a necessary activity in assessing the potential carbon sequestration and possible generation of credits through restoration of intensively impacted sites. However, there is a lack of empirical studies throughout much of the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. We report an estimation of species specific and site biomass and carbon stocks, and general vegetation structural attributes from three protected areas along a rainfall gradient in the central lowveld, South Africa. Estimates of biomass and carbon stocks were effected through destructive sampling to establish locally derived allometric equations. There was a gradient of increasing woody density, height of the canopy, number of species, density of regenerative stems and a greater proportion of stems in small size classes from the arid locality to the mesic locality, with the semi-arid locality being intermediate. The proportion of spinescent species decreased with increasing rainfall. The mesic locality was significantly more woody than either the arid or semi-arid sites, having double the biomass, four times the density and 40% higher basal area. Above ground carbon pools were also higher; carbon stocks were approximately 9 t/ha for the arid and semi-arid sites and 18 t/ha for the mesic site.
- Format
- 18 pages
- Format
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Shackleton, C.M. and Scholes, R.J (2011) Above ground woody community attributes, biomass and carbon stocks along a rainfall gradient in the savannas of the central lowveld, South Africa. South African Journal of Botany, 77 (1). pp. 184-192. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2010.07.014
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RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
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