Aboveground biomass production of a semi-arid southern African savanna: towards a new model
Autor: | Igshaan Samuels, Susanne Vetter, W Fransiska Kangombe, Isa A. M. Yunusa, Andiswa Finca, Clement Cupido, Isaac Mapaure, Anthony R. Palmer |
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Rok vydání: | 2015 |
Předmět: |
Canopy
Biomass (ecology) 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Ecology business.industry Agroforestry 0211 other engineering and technologies Primary production Forestry 02 engineering and technology ecosystem ecology foraging ecology Namibia plant production remote sensing 01 natural sciences Arid Carrying capacity Environmental science Animal Science and Zoology Livestock Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer Leaf area index business 021101 geological & geomatics engineering 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
Zdroj: | African Journal of Range and Forage Science; Vol 33, No 1 (2016); 43–51 |
ISSN: | 1727-9380 1022-0119 |
Popis: | Following a field campaign to determine the species composition, canopy cover, aboveground annual production and leaf area index (LAI) of the semi-arid savanna of north-western Namibia, we present a production model that can be used by graziers to determine the livestock carrying capacity. The model predicts the annual aboveground net primary production (ANPP) from regression equations of canopy cover by annual production fraction for plant functional classes. We tested the output of the model against another fully independent net primary production (NPP) model, namely the MODIS NPP product. The mean MODIS NPP for the 29 sites was 343 ± 22 kg dry matter (DM) ha−1 y−1 as opposed to 285 ± 142 kg DM ha−1 y−1 for the fAP model that used the regression method (p < 0.01). As a proof of concept, these landscape-scale ANPP values are used to calculate a recommended livestock carrying capacity for the Ehirovipuka Communal Conservancy, a 1 980 km2 communal area with both wildlife and livestock populations. In addition, we also provide details of a field method for predicting landscape-scale LAI from line transect data. This approach can be used to ground reference the LAI values generated from the MODIS LAI product.Keywords: ecosystem ecology, foraging ecology, Namibia, plant production, remote sensing |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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