Diversity patterns of grasses in Burkina Faso

Marco Schmidt, Konstantin König, Thomas Janssen & Georg Zizka. Systematics 2008, Göttingen, April 11, 2008

SUN

Introduction - Burkina FasoSahelo-sudanian savannas

dry: 300 – 1200 mm annual rainfall

flat: 150 – 750 m above sealevel

land use: pastoralism (Sahel), shifting cultivation (Sudan)

Vegetation zonesSahelSubsahelN SudanS Sudan

Introduction - Grassesdominate herb layer of the savannas

family with most species in Burkina Faso (254)

economically important

good indicator for whole plant diversity

Dune of Oursi Pama Reserve

QuestionsHow is grass diversity distributed within Burkina Faso?

Within the family, how are functional groups distributed?

Dune of Oursi Pama Reserve

Materials - DataDistribution data (species & coordinates)

Herbarium specimens (FR: 1,945; AAU: 782)Relevés (phytosoc., rapid assessments): 9,955

Character data (morphology, photosynthetic type)

Floras, GrassBase, articles, own investigations

Environmental data (satellite imagery)

principal components from EVI / NDVI

Methods – Data flow

Known species occurrences

Environm. layers(Satellite data)

Distribution modelling with Maxent

Maps of modelled distributions

Combine single distribution maps

(define threshhold)(link with PFT data)

Georeferencing,matching synonymy, taxonomic rank, etc.

Collection and observation data

Maps of species richness

Maps of functional type distributions

PFT data

Methods - Distribution models

Geographical Space Ecological Space

Environmental data

Known occurrences(at least 10)

Distribution model of a species

Ecological Niche Model

precipitation

temperature

Vegetation cover

etc.

Results - Species composition

All species: 269 species in and around Burkina Faso

Modelled species: 122 grass species with at least 10 occurrence points

All species

geophytehemicryptophytetherophytechamaephytephanerophyte

All species

C3C4 MS (NADP-ME)C4 PS-NAD (NAD-ME)C4 PS-PCK (PCK)

All species

0 - 50 cm50 - 100 cm100 - 200 cm200 - 400 cm> 400 cm

All species

0 - 5 mm5 - 10 mm10 - 20 mm20 - 40 mm> 40 mm

Results - Species Richness

Results - Life formsModelled species

geophyte

hemicryptophyte

therophyte

All species

geophytehemicryptophytetherophytechamaephytephanerophyte

Results - HeightModelled species

0 - 50 cm50 - 100 cm100 - 200 cm200 - 400 cm

All species

0 - 50 cm50 - 100 cm100 - 200 cm200 - 400 cm> 400 cm

Results - Leaf WidthModelled species

0 - 5 mm5 - 10 mm10 - 20 mm20 - 40 mm> 40 mm

All species

0 - 5 mm5 - 10 mm10 - 20 mm20 - 40 mm> 40 mm

Results - Photosynthetic typesModelled species

C3C4 MS (NADP-ME)C4 PS-NAD (NAD-ME)C4 PS-PCK (PCK)

All species

C3C4 MS (NADP-ME)C4 PS-NAD (NAD-ME)C4 PS-PCK (PCK)

ThanksTo the BMBF for funding BIOTA

To the EU for funding SUN

To all collectors and contributors of our vegetation database