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The Kalahari Transect
Project: root mapping in savannah ecosystems
The University of Virginia and HOORC are
planning a cooperative project that includes an educational component
for high school students to better understand the function and carbon
storage potential of root systems in savannah ecosystems.
Savannahs constitute one of the major global terrestrial carbon pools
and are responsible for about 13% of global net primary productivity.
They have the potential to be either large carbon sinks or large
carbon sources, depending on how they are managed and the time-scale
under consideration. Since southern African savannas presently have a
moderate degree of anthropogenic disturbance, and since the human
population is expected to rise dramatically, they have the potential
to experience a significant change in carbon storage and either
contribute to or alleviate the atmospheric carbon load significantly.
The Kalahari Transect (KT) follows a north-south decline in mean
annual rainfall from ~1000 mm/yr to ~250 mm/yr on homogenous sandy
soils deposited during the Pleistocene (Kalahari Sands). The large
gradient in both the mean and variation of annual rainfall results in
dramatic changes in vegetation structure along the Transect.
Vegetation type ranges from partially closed woodlands in the north to
open shrub land in the south. Throughout the KT, the mixed life-form
composition characteristic of savannah communities is maintained.
Thus, the KT is a unique natural laboratory to study landscape
processes and assess the impact of global change in savannah
ecosystems.
The project collaborators at the HOORC intend to explore how water and
nutrients are transported via surface and deep root systems, and the
role of the root system in carbon sequestration via coarse and fine
root production.
For more information about the project, contact Professor Susan
Ringrose at sringrose@orc.ub.bw. |
