We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Seed rain and its role in the recolonization of degraded hill slopes in semi-arid central Tanzania.
- Authors
Lyaruu, Herbert V. M.
- Abstract
SummaryA seed rain study in semi-arid central Tanzania was conducted with the objective of providing guidelines on how to rehabilitate the degraded vegetation on the hillslopes of the Kondoa Irangi. The seed rain included predominantly wind-dispersed diaspores which accounted for 78% of the species (45 out of 57) and 97% of the diaspores. The density ranged from 230 to 1667 seeds m-2 over an 8-month period. Both species richness and seed density were negatively correlated with vegetation cover. The increasing seed densities with decreasing vegetation cover signifies the importance of anemochory in areas undergoing regeneration succession. Cluster analysis of the seed rain data based on squared Euclidean distances produced a dendrogram with three distinct clusters, representing anemochorous seeds, epi-zoochorous seeds and a mixture of both, but dominated by seeds with no obvious dispersal appendages. Management including controlled re-introduction of livestock to the hills to increase nitrogen mineralization, species diversity and to reduce grass biomass, and hence the severity of fires, may be an appropriate solution to speed up the vegetation recovery process.
- Subjects
TANZANIA; KONDOA Irangi (Tanzania); RAINFALL; VEGETATION &; climate; ENVIRONMENTAL degradation; MOUNTAIN environmental conditions
- Publication
African Journal of Ecology, 1999, Vol 37, Issue 2, p137
- ISSN
0141-6707
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.1365-2028.1999.00158.x