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Definition of grassland biomes from phytoliths in West Africa

Definition of grassland biomes from phytoliths in West Africa

https://devfeature-collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/TN_cdi_hal_primary_oai_HAL_hal_01909598v1

Definition of grassland biomes from phytoliths in West Africa

About this item

Full title

Definition of grassland biomes from phytoliths in West Africa

Publisher

Oxford, UK: Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Journal title

Journal of biogeography, 2008-11, Vol.35 (11), p.2039-2048

Language

English

Formats

Publication information

Publisher

Oxford, UK: Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd

More information

Scope and Contents

Contents

In order to enhance the effectiveness of comparisons between modelled and empirical data for present and past vegetation, it is important to improve the characterization of tropical grass-dominated biomes reconstructed from fossil tracers. This study presents a method for assigning phytolith assemblages to tropical grass-dominated biomes, with the objective of offering a new tool for combining pollen and phytolith data in the reconstruction of tropical biomes. The West African latitudinal transect studied here extends from 12° N (southern Senegal) to 23° N (southern Mauritania), passing through the Guinean, Sudanian, Sahelian and Saharan bioclimatic zones. Modern phytolith assemblages were extracted from 59 soil surface samples taken throughout the study area and allocated, a priori, to three current biomes: (1) desert C₄ grassland, (2) short grass savanna, and (3) tall grass savanna. Five out of nine phytolith types identified were used as predictors in a discriminant analysis (with calibration and validation steps) for assigning phytolith assemblages to biomes. In addition, 74 modern pollen spectra from the West African transect, acquired from the African Pollen Database ( http://medias.obs-mip.fr/apd), were processed by the biomization method. This mathematical procedure involves assigning palynological taxa to one or more plant functional types, which represent broad classes of plants. The plant functional types, in turn, are combined to define biomes following a specific set of algorithms and rules. The resulting maps of the phytolith bi...

Alternative Titles

Full title

Definition of grassland biomes from phytoliths in West Africa

Authors, Artists and Contributors

Identifiers

Primary Identifiers

Record Identifier

TN_cdi_hal_primary_oai_HAL_hal_01909598v1

Permalink

https://devfeature-collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/TN_cdi_hal_primary_oai_HAL_hal_01909598v1

Other Identifiers

ISSN

0305-0270

E-ISSN

1365-2699

DOI

10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01944.x

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