Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 112, Issue 42, Pages 12992-12996Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1517382112
Keywords
savanna; tree abundance; rainfall intensity; plant water use; competition
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Funding
- Princeton Environmental Institute
- Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University
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Tree abundance in tropical savannas exhibits large and unexplained spatial variability. Here, we propose that differentiated tree and grasswater use strategies can explain the observed negative relation between maximum tree abundance and rainfall intensity (defined as the characteristic rainfall depth on rainy days), and we present a biophysical tree-grass competition model to test this idea. The model is founded on a premise that has been well established in empirical studies, namely, that the relative growth rate of grasses is much higher compared with trees in wet conditions but that grasses are more susceptible to water stress and lose biomass more quickly in dry conditions. The model is coupled with a stochastic rainfall generator and then calibrated and tested using field observations from several African savanna sites. We show that the observed negative relation between maximum tree abundance and rainfall intensity can be explained only when differentiated water use strategies are accounted for. Numerical experiments reveal that this effect is more significant than the effect of root niche separation. Our results emphasize the importance of vegetation physiology in determining the responses of tree abundance to climate variations in tropical savannas and suggest that projected increases in rainfall intensity may lead to an increase in grass in this biome.
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