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Effect of fire regime on the grass community of the humid savanna of Lamto, Ivory Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2018

Kouamé Fulgence Koffi ,
Aya Brigitte N’Dri ,
Jean-Christophe Lata ,
Souleymane Konaté ,
Tharaniya Srikanthasamy ,
Marcel Konan  and
Sébastien Barot
Kouamé Fulgence Koffi*
Affiliation:
UFR des Sciences de la Nature, Station d’Ecologie de Lamto/CRE, Pôle de Recherche Environnement et Développement Durable, Université Nangui Abrogoua, 02 BP 801, Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire Sorbonne Université, UMR 7618 IEES-Paris (IRD, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, UPEC, INRA), 6 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France
Aya Brigitte N’Dri
Affiliation:
UFR des Sciences de la Nature, Station d’Ecologie de Lamto/CRE, Pôle de Recherche Environnement et Développement Durable, Université Nangui Abrogoua, 02 BP 801, Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire
Jean-Christophe Lata
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Université, UMR 7618 IEES-Paris (IRD, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, UPEC, INRA), 6 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France Department of Geoecology and Geochemistry, Institute of Natural Resources, Tomsk Polytechnic University, 30, Lenin Street, 634050, Tomsk, Russia
Souleymane Konaté
Affiliation:
UFR des Sciences de la Nature, Station d’Ecologie de Lamto/CRE, Pôle de Recherche Environnement et Développement Durable, Université Nangui Abrogoua, 02 BP 801, Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire
Tharaniya Srikanthasamy
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Université, UMR 7618 IEES-Paris (IRD, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, UPEC, INRA), 6 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France
Marcel Konan
Affiliation:
UFR des Sciences de la Nature, Station d’Ecologie de Lamto/CRE, Pôle de Recherche Environnement et Développement Durable, Université Nangui Abrogoua, 02 BP 801, Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire
Sébastien Barot
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Université, UMR 7618 IEES-Paris (IRD, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, UPEC, INRA), 6 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study assesses the impact of four fire treatments applied yearly over 3 y, i.e. early fire, mid-season fire, late fire and no fire treatments, on the grass communities of Lamto savanna, Ivory Coast. We describe communities of perennial tussock grasses on three replicated 5 × 5-m or 10 × 5-m plots of each fire treatment. Tussock density did not vary with fire treatment. The relative abundance of grass species, the circumference of grass tussocks and the probability of having a tussock with a central die-back, varied with fire treatment. Mid-season fire had the highest proportion of tussocks with a central die-back while the late fire had the smallest tussocks. Tussock density, circumference, relative abundance and probability of having a central die-back varied with species. Andropogon canaliculatus and Hyparrhenia diplandra were the most abundant of the nine grass species. They had the largest tussocks and the highest proportion of tussock with a central die-back. Loudetia simplex was the third most abundant species but was very rare in no fire plots. The distribution of tussock circumferences was right skewed and dominated by small tussocks. The proportion of the tussocks with a central die-back strongly increased with circumference, which could lead to tussock fragmentation. Taken together, this study suggests that fire regimes impact grass demography and that this impact depends on grass species and tussock size.

Keywords

Fire regimeshumid savannaperennial grasssavanna firetussock circumferencetussock density
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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