Regional insight into savanna hydrogeomorphology from termite mounds

Shaun R. Levick (), Gregory P. Asner, Oliver A. Chadwick, Lesego M. Khomo, Kevin H. Rogers, Anthony S. Hartshorn, Ty Kennedy-Bowdoin and David E. Knapp
Additional contact information
Shaun R. Levick: Carnegie Institution
Gregory P. Asner: Carnegie Institution
Oliver A. Chadwick: University of California
Lesego M. Khomo: Centre for Water in the Environment, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
Kevin H. Rogers: Centre for Water in the Environment, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
Anthony S. Hartshorn: James Madison University
Ty Kennedy-Bowdoin: Carnegie Institution
David E. Knapp: Carnegie Institution

Nature Communications, 2010, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Global vegetation models predict the spread of woody vegetation in African savannas and grasslands under future climate scenarios, but they operate too broadly to consider hillslope-scale variations in tree–grass distribution. Topographically linked hydrology–soil–vegetation sequences, or catenas, underpin a variety of ecological processes in savannas, including responses to climate change. In this study, we explore the three-dimensional structure of hillslopes and vegetation, using high-resolution airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), to understand the long-term effects of mean annual precipitation (MAP) on catena pattern. Our results reveal that the presence and position of hillslope hydrological boundaries, or seeplines, vary as a function of MAP through its long-term influence on clay redistribution. We suggest that changes in climate will differentially alter the structure of savannas through hydrological changes to the seasonally saturated grasslands downslope of seeplines. The mechanisms underlying future woody encroachment are not simply physiological responses to elevated temperatures and CO2 levels but also involve hydrogeomorphological processes at the hillslope scale.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1066 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1066

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1066

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().