The Consequences of Precipitation Seasonality for Mediterranean-Ecosystem Vegetation of South Africa.

ABSTRACT: Globally, mediterranean-climate ecosystem vegetation has converged on an evergreen, sclerophyllous and shrubby growth form. The particular aspects of mediterranean-climate regions that contribute to this convergence include summer droughts and relatively nutrient-poor soils. We hypothesised that winter-precipitation implies stressful summer droughts and leaches soils due to greater water availability (i.e. balance between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration; P-PET) during cold periods. We conducted a comparative analysis of normalised difference vegetation indices (NDVI) and edaphic and climate properties across the biomes of South Africa. NDVI was strongly correlated with both precipitation and P-PET (r2 = 0.8). There was no evidence, however, that winter-precipitation reduces

SUBMITTER: Cramer MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4674101 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature