Ecosystem functions in degraded riparian forests of southeastern Kenya.

ABSTRACT: Species community structures shape ecosystem functions, which are mostly stronger pronounced in intact than in degraded environments. Riparian forests in semiarid Africa provide important habitats for endangered plant and animal species and provide various ecosystem functions, that is, services to people settling along these streams. Most of these riparian forests are severely disturbed by human activities and dominated by invasive exotic plant species in the meanwhile. Thus, ecosystem functions are negatively influenced. While most studies have analyzed a specific metric to measure the degree of ecosystem function, little is known about how strongly different ecosystem functions respond to anthropogenic disturbances in parallel. In this study, we analyzed a set of four proxies of ecosyste

SUBMITTER: Habel JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8462158 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature