Abstract
West African Savanna ecosystems are undergoing severe changes in their vegetation composition due to the impact of human land use and changes in climatic conditions. This study aims to examine the effect of climate, land use, and their interaction on species richness and composition of West African herbaceous vegetation. Plot based vegetation sampling was done in Burkina Faso. Specific richness and diversity indices were used to determine the effect of land use, climate, and their interaction. An importance value was computed to determine herbaceous species dominating the communities. Frequency of species is used to examine their distribution pattern. The results showed that climate significantly influenced herbaceous specific richness more than land use. However, land use had a significant effect on herbaceous vegetation composition. Herbaceous species diversity changed with environmental conditions. The floristic composition of dominant species is driven by both climate and land use. The frequency of distribution demonstrated that herbaceous species occurrences were more influenced by the mixed effect of climate and land use than their separate effects. Occasional and rare species are the most important part of herbaceous vegetation. Thus heterogeneity of Savanna ecosystem and vulnerability of herbaceous species are high.
Highlights
West African Savanna ecosystems are undergoing severe changes in their vegetation composition and species cover due to the impact of human land use and changes in climatic conditions
This study aims to examine the effect of climate, land use, and their interaction on species richness and composition of West African herbaceous vegetation
This study shows that specific richness of herbaceous vegetation increases significantly with precipitation, and is, mainly determined by climate, whereas the effect of land use is less important
Summary
West African Savanna ecosystems are undergoing severe changes in their vegetation composition and species cover due to the impact of human land use and changes in climatic conditions. Climate change and human activities (land use, chopping, fire, and grazing) are leading to the degradation of these ecosystems [3, 7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. These changes threaten biodiversity and sustainable land use [6]. Several studies predicted dramatic changes for West Africa vegetation for the 50 years: for example, Savannas are predicted to expand in the few centuries at the expense of tropical forests, mainly as a result of deforestation and human fires [14]. The main question is how climate and land use interact to affect West African herbaceous vegetation?
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