Basal stem area is a better measure of woodiness than canopy cover in the savannas of the Kruger National Park

摘要

Water availability, soil nutrient availability, fire and herbivory are all known to affect the abundance of trees in savannas; yet the strength of each factor is often puzzlingly variable between sites. 1-3 Woody cover in African savannas, for example, varies from 80% under similar rainfall regimes. 4 We hypothesised that part of the problem in determining how environmental factors affect woodiness in savannas relates to the difficulty of quantifying woodiness effectively.