Determinants of woody cover in African savannas

By M. Sankaran, Niall P. Hanan, R. Scholes, J. Ratnam, David J. Augustine, Brian S. Cade, J. Gignoux, Steven Higgins, X. Roux, F. Ludwig and 20 more. Nature, 2005

1,969 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Plant Science, Soil Science

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Citations in the corpus

The lanky and the corky: fire‐escape strategies in savanna woody species (2013, background): “In addition, the rainfall regime strongly controls C4 grass productivity (Fay et al. 2003; Sankaran et al. 2005) and is an important factor affecting the flammability of savannas (Higgins, Bond & Trollope 2000).”
The impact of shrub encroachment on savanna bird diversity from local to regional scale (2009, neutral): “Savannas are deﬁned by the coexistence of trees and grasses (Scholes & Archer, 1997), and occupy a ﬁfth of the earth’s land surface (Sankaran et al. , 2005).”
Impact of China's Large-Scale Ecological Restoration Program on the Environment and Society in Arid and Semiarid Areas of China: Achievements, Problems, Synthesis, and Applications (2011, background): “Unfortunately, afforestation is being practiced in many areas of China where precipitation is insufficient to support forests, greatly reducing tree growth or even leading to extensive tree mortality (Sankaran et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2003).”
Savanna woody encroachment is widespread across three continents (2017, positive): “Mean annual precipitation (MAP) was a covariate given that both mean woody cover and potential woody cover increase with MAP (Jolly et al. , 2005; Sankaran et al. , 2005; Lehmann et al. , 2014).”
Water and nutrients alter herbaceous competitive effects on tree seedlings in a semi‐arid savanna (2009, background): “These trends are likely to continue into the future (Dentener et al. 2006; Sheffield & Wood 2008), but the responses of woody vs. herbaceous plants to these changes are still uncertain (Scholes & Archer 1997; House et al. 2003; Sankaran et al. 2004, 2005).”
Effects of Herbivory, Fire and N2-fixation on Nutrient Limitation in a Humid African Savanna (2008, background): “In contrast, humid savannas are often on heavily leached soils and are characterized by low phosphorus (P) availability ( Sanchez 1976 ); plant growth in these ecosystems may be limited by shortages of N, P or both (Ho ¨ gberg 1986; Medina 1987), although which nutrient is limiting in any particular”
Changes in arthropod diversity along a land use driven gradient of shrub cover in savanna rangelands: identification of suitable indicators (2009, background): “In semi-arid savannas, good rainfall years (Kraaij and Ward 2006) in conjunction with heavy grazing by domestic livestock lead to shrub encroachment (e.g., Archer et al. 1995; Cabral et al. 2003; Sankaran et al. 2005).”
Differences in growth patterns between co-occurring forest and savanna trees affect the forest-savanna boundary (2009, result): “This amount of rainfall is high compared to savannas in Africa (where most savannas receive < 1200 mm; Sankaran et al. 2005), but similar to some savanna sites in Australia (1710 mm; Prior et al. 2004).”
The origin of the savanna biome (2006, background): “Fire initiates and sustains the savanna biome by removing and preventing the encroachment of forests (van Langevelde et al., 2003; Bond et al., 2005; Sankaran et al., 2005) and becomes a feature of these ecosystems when C4 grasses establish into forest gaps created by the death of trees during…”
Alien plant invasions in tropical and sub-tropical savannas: patterns, processes and prospects (2010, background): “…1979; Huntley and Walker 1982; Bourlière and Hadley 1983; Cole 1986; Werner 1991; Scholes and Walker 1993; Sinclair and Arcese 1995; Solbrig et al. 1996; Cowling et al. 1997; Coe et al. 1999; du Toit et al. 2003; Sankaran et al. 2005, 2008; Furley 2006; Shorrocks 2007; Sinclair et al. 2008).”