Winners and losers: tropical forest tree seedling survival across a West African forest-savanna transition.

ABSTRACT:

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Forest encroachment into savanna is occurring at an unprecedented rate across tropical Africa, leading to a loss of valuable savanna habitat. One of the first stages of forest encroachment is the establishment of tree seedlings at the forest-savanna transition. This study examines the demographic bottleneck in the seedlings of five species of tropical forest pioneer trees in a forest-savanna transition zone in West Africa. Five species of tropical pioneer forest tree seedlings were planted in savanna, mixed/transition, and forest vegetation types and grown for 12 months, during which time fire occurred in the area. We examined seedling survival rates, height, and stem diameter before and after fire; and seedling biomass and starch allocation patterns after fire. Seedling

SUBMITTER: Cardoso AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4840012 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature