| Title |
Impact of fire on the Baikiaea woodlands (SASSCAL Book, Biodiversity & Ecology 6) |
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| Author |
Vera De Cauwer and Jan Mertens
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| Abstract |
The tropical woodlands and savannas of southern Africa have amongst the highest fi re frequencies in the world (Aldersley et al., 2011; Pausas & Ribeiro, 2013). Although fire has been a major driver of these ecosystems for millions of years (Bond & Zaloumis, 2016), most fires in the Baikiaea woodlands have an anthropogenic origin as the fi re season is in the late dry season, when hardly any natural ignitions take place (Archibald et al., 2008; Gambiza et al., 2005; Stellmes et al., 2013). With northern Namibia and southern Angola projected to become warmer and drier, fire frequency is expected to increase (De Cauwer et al., 2016; Enright et al., 2015; Pausas & Ribeiro, 2013), as detected by some studies (Pricope & Binford, 2012; Schelstraete, 2016). The current fire regimes cause forest degradation, especially through the decrease of woody biomass and carbon sequestration (Chidumayo, 2013). Forest degradation is difficult to quantify as it requires comparison with an undegraded condition and often entails repeated measurements over time. Long-term studies in the Baikiaea woodlands have been very limited. One study of an annual burning experiment over 16 years in northern Namibia illustrated how fire negatively affected woody regeneration, especially of species such as Baikiaea plurijuga and Commiphora spp. (Geldenhuys, 1977). The SASSCAL task 038 assessed the impact of fire on the tree layer of the open Baikiaea woodlands at the border between Namibia and Angola, especially for trees with a minimum diameter at breast height (DBH) of 5 cm. A forest inventory was repeated after a period of one year to assess the impact
of a single fi re. Additionally, single forest inventory data were used to assess the impact of multiple fires on basal area and on tree damage. |
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| Citation |
De Cauwer, V. & Mertens, J. (2018) Impact of fire on the Baikiaea woodlands In: Climate change and adaptive land management in southern Africa – assessments, changes, challenges, and solutions (ed. by Revermann, R., Krewenka, K.M., Schmiedel, U., Olwoch, J.M., Helmschrot, J. & Jürgens, N.), pp. 334-335, Biodiversity & Ecology, 6, Klaus Hess Publishers, Göttingen & Windhoek. doi:10.7809/b-e.00342 |
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| DOI |
10.7809/b-e.00342 |
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