- Title
- Nearest-neighbour analysis and the prevelance of woody plant competition in South African savannas
- Creator
- Shackleton, Charlie M
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2002
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181640
- Identifier
- vital:43754
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014795505362"
- Description
- Inter- and intra-specific competition has long been regarded as a significant determinant of the structure and function of woody plant communities in African savannas. The most widely used approach to detect the presence or absence of competition has been the use of nearest-neighbour methods. Although several studies have been published reporting the presence of competition in Acacia dominated communities, less than 20 plots have been sampled across all these studies. Results from broad-leaved communities are variable, and also based on a small sample number. Consequently, this study sought to assess the prevalence of competition from a large number of savanna sites (45), and to identify abiotic and biotic factors characterising sites with competition relative to those without. Using the nearest-neighbour method only four sites (9.3%) indicated the presence of inter-specific competition; two were Acacia dominated communities (18.2% of Acacia sites) and two were broad-leaved communities (7.7%). These four sites had a significantly higher mean annual rainfall and fewer woody species than sites without inter-specific competition. There were also significant relationships between the inter-specific competition index and the dominance index and the number of species at a site. In terms of intra-specific competition only ten of the 31 sites tested revealed a significant correlation between nearest-neighbour distance and summed canopy volume of the two neighbours. Seven were for Acacia species (55.6% of the Acacia species comparisons) and three were for broad-leaved species (21.4% of the broad-leaved species comparisons). Sites lacking evidence of intra-specific competition were at a significantly lower slope position and had a smaller proportion of small stems. The lower prevalence of competition in South African savannas detected in this study using the same method as previous studies is discussed, and the appropriateness of nearest-neighbour analysis is examined.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (12 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- SpringerLink
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Plant Ecology, Shackleton, C., 2002. Nearest-neighbour analysis and the prevelance of woody plant competition in South African savannas. Plant Ecology, 158(1), pp.65-76, Plant Ecology volume 158 number 1 p. 65 2002 1573-5052
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
RU Department of Environmental Science
SDG 15. Life On Land
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