BayCEER Workshop 2016
October 13, 2016
NW III, University of Bayreuth
Response of leaf functional traits and species composition of savanna herbaceous vegetation to livestock grazing and rainfall treatment
2 Plant Ecology Group University of Bayreuth,
3 Plant Ecology University of Bayreuth
P 3.4 in Water and the environment: From biosphere to geosphere
Due to increase in dynamics of land use and through climate change there can be an increase in extreme climatic events such as drought. The response of savannas herbaceous ecosystem to grazing activities and climate change remain to be poorly understood. This presentation provides baseline information on the response of semiarid savannas herbaceous community placed under different rainfall treatments and grazing regimes on the land inhabited by pastoralist community in Lambwe valley southern side of Ruma National Park in Kenya.
The data was collected from two major blocks; grazed (where a continuous grazing occurred throughout the year) and ungrazed (where grassland excluded from livestock grazing). The blocks were subjected to three rainfall manipulations; (1) 50% rainfall removal, (2) 100% rainfall control and (3) 50% additional rainfall.
We analysed the response of savannas herbaceous communities on a simulated grazing and rainfall treatment by focusing on the above ground biomass, species composition, abundace and five function traits (LDMC: leaf dry matter content, SLA: specific leaf area, LNC: leaf nitrogen concentration and C:N: leaf CN ratio and LSD: leaf stomata density). We determined the relative contribution in the community functional response to drought and grazing, reflected by changes in community-weighted mean traits.
Results indicates significant response of species to grazing and rainfall treatment, as well as significant changes in community-weighted mean traits.
Our results analysed the demand for a better consideration of intraspecific variability to understand the effect both climate change and increasing land use change on plant community.
Keywords: Plant functional traits, community-weighted mean traits, Rainfall treatments, drought, herbaceous grasslands.