Customary Fire Regimes and Vegetation Structure in Gabon's Bateke Plateaux

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_FE55D93D7E20
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Customary Fire Regimes and Vegetation Structure in Gabon's Bateke Plateaux
Journal
Human Ecology
Author(s)
Walters G.
ISSN
0300-7839 (Print)
1572-9915 (Online)
Publication state
Published
Issued date
12/2012
Volume
40
Number
6
Pages
943-955
Language
english
Abstract
Most fires in Africa are anthropogenic yet remain understudied. Studies typically address managed fire, or the "fire triad" of early dry season-late dry season-suppression, and fire regimes which are annual or less, leaving unstudied the anthropogenic fire regimes that occur in the majority of African savannas. I take the case of the Bateke Plateaux area where burning today occurs both annually and semi-annually and measure the impacts of these regimes on savanna structure, measuring stem survival post fire and post fire regeneration of resprouts of the dominant savanna tree. While annual fires are hot and burn completely, semi-annual fires are cooler and patchy, favouring re-sprout survival and an escape route for small stems to mature into trees. This work extends the fire triad model to include an anthropogenic semi-annual regime which favours tree survival. The integration of local fire regimes into future studies will help increase our understanding of climate, vegetation dynamics as well as help orient policy and conservation.
Keywords
Fire regime, Gabon, Savanna, Ecology, Anthropogenic fire
Web of science
Create date
25/02/2019 22:14
Last modification date
20/08/2019 17:28
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