Tree cover in Central Africa: determinants and sensitivity under contrasted scenarios of global change.

ABSTRACT: Tree cover is a key variable for ecosystem functioning, and is widely used to study tropical ecosystems. But its determinants and their relative importance are still a matter of debate, especially because most regional and global analyses have not considered the influence of agricultural practices. More information is urgently needed regarding how human practices influence vegetation structure. Here we focused in Central Africa, a region still subjected to traditional agricultural practices with a clear vegetation gradient. Using remote sensing data and global databases, we calibrated a Random Forest model to correlatively link tree cover with climatic, edaphic, fire and agricultural practices data. We showed that annual rainfall and accumulated water deficit were the main drivers of the d

SUBMITTER: Aleman JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5278362 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature