Spatial Patterns of West-African Plant Diversity Along a Climatic Gradient from Coast to Sahel
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Spatial patterns of West-African plant diversity along a climatic gradient from coast to Sahel Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades (Dr. rer. nat.) der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn vorgelegt von Sié Sylvestre DA aus Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso Bonn, Mai 2010 Angefertigt mit Genehmigung der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka Tag der Promotion: 29. Juni 2010 Erscheinungsjahr: 2010 i ii Preface and Acknowledgements Preface and Acknowledgements This thesis was carried out at the Nees Institute for Biodiversity of Plants, at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in the framework of the BIOTA Africa Project “Analysis of the African biodiversity and development of sustainable conservation strategies integrating the effects of climate change and landuse” led by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It was also supported by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur, Mainz. In the very first place, I would like to express my warmest thanks to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott for accepting me in his working group and giving me the chance and opportunity to conduct a PhD project on the fascinating field of biodiversity mapping for protection and sustainable use of natural resources. I am deeply grateful for his excellent guidance and constructive criticisms and also for his continuous motiviation to constantly increase my knowledge in the field of biodiversity research. Vielen Dank Professor! Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka (Universität Frankfurt), who kindly agreed to co- supervise this thesis. He is gratefully acknowledged for his critical reading and fruitful comments. I am deeply indebted to Prof. Dr. Adjima Thiombiano (Université de Ouagadougou/Burkina Faso) for the fruitful discussions we had in Burkina Faso and during his stays in Germany, and for the continuous support in all stages of this study. He also gave me the inspiration by his lectures and courses during my early studies and raised my interest in the field of plant ecology. I deeply appreciate the support from Prof. Dr. Sita Guinko, Prof. Dr. Jeanne Frémiot de Chantal Millogo/ Rasolodimby and Prof. Dr. Joseph I. Boussim (Laboratoire de Biologie et Écologie Végétales – Université de Ouagadougou). This thesis would not have been possible without the constant support and encouragements of the members of the BIOMAPS working group at the Nees Institute. I remain deeply grateful for their constant advice and invaluable input throughout the termination of this thesis, for creating a pleasant working atmosphere and for their sincere help during my stay in Germany. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Jan Henning Sommer for his constant disposability despite his iii Preface and Acknowledgements enormous daily task of responsibilities. I remain deeply grateful to him for his useful comments and fruitful suggestions. I wish to extend appreciations to my office mates and PhD-fellows, Katharina Sabellek and Jaime Ricardo García Márquez for the convivial atmosphere and for helping me very much to overcome the challenges inherent to the different analysis. I would like to express my gratitude to my current and former colleagues of the BIOMAPS group, Dr. Holger Kreft, Dr. Jens Mutke, Dr. Daud Rafiqpoor, Dr. Nils Köster, Dr. Wolfgang Küper, and Sylvie Dugay for fruitful and very helpful discussions and suggestions. Many thanks to all my colleagues at the Nees Institute for Biodiversity of Plants, University of Bonn for different kind of support. I thank the student assistants (“HIWIs”) for their valuable contribution to this work: Katja Seis, Pascal Wauer, Laurens Geffert, Christian Haase, Anne-Marie Schnell, and specially Sebastian Eschweiler who helped me a lot to solve any kind of technical problems. Es war immer richtig toll mit Euch! Thanks to all members of the BIOTA West project network for the good working atmosphere and the synergies derived by our collaborative work. Special thanks to anybody who provided data in this context, in particular to Prof. Dr. Adjima Thiombiabno, Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka, Dr. Marco Schmidt, and Dr. Cyrille Chatelain for providing fine scale plant disitribution data, and to Dr. Jakob Fahr, Matthias Herkt and Dr. Martin Wegmann for preparing einvironmental datasets. I further appreciate the contribution of numerous scientists and institutions to the development of the Biogeographic Information System on African Plant Diversity. I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues: Oumarou Sambaré, Dr. Amadé Ouédraogo, Dr. Oumarou Ouédraogo, Dr. Salifou Traoré, Blandine Nacoulma, Assan Gnoumou, at the “Laboratoire de Biologie et Écologie Végétale de l’Université de Ouagadougou”, Jean-Paul Ouédraogo, Dénis Wambéogo, Belemnaba Lazar, Côme Linsoussi, Noellie Yao, Dr. Lazar Tia, Dr. Moses Tita Mogho Njoya, Ngome Ajebe Francis and Kelvin Mtei, for their constant encouragements. Finally my special thanks to my loving mother for her never-ending support and blessing despite the distance, my gratitude to my brothers and sisters, Simplice, Philippe, Fernand, Marthe and Louise who have constantly encouraged me to achieve my goals. Vielen Dank für alles! - Merci pour tout! - Thank you very much for everything! iv v Table of contents Table of Contents 1. General introduction.................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Spatial patterns of biodiversity............................................................................... 2 1.2 Delineation of biogeographical regions.................................................................. 5 1.3 Biodiversity and climate change ............................................................................ 7 1.4 General features of West African plant biodiversity.............................................. 9 1.5 Institutional background of the thesis................................................................... 11 2. Aims of the study ...................................................................................................... 13 3. Patterns of vascular plant species richness along a climatic gradient and across protected areas in West Africa.................................................................................... 15 3.1 Abstract................................................................................................................. 15 3.2 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Data and Methods................................................................................................. 19 3.4 Results .................................................................................................................. 23 3.5 Discussion............................................................................................................. 29 3.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................ 32 4. Quantitative delineation of phytogeographical regions based on modeled plant species distributions in West Africa............................................................................ 33 4.1. Abstract................................................................................................................ 33 4.2. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 34 4.3. Data and Methods................................................................................................ 36 4.4. Results ................................................................................................................. 39 4.5. Discussion............................................................................................................ 46 4.6 Conclusion and perspectives ................................................................................ 51 5. Prediction of species richness and shift in phytogeographic regions under climate change in West Africa..................................................................................... 53 5.1 Abstract................................................................................................................. 53 5.2 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 54 5.3 Data and Methods................................................................................................. 56 vi Table of contents 5.4 Results .................................................................................................................. 59 5.5 Discussion............................................................................................................. 65 5.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................ 69 6. General conclusions.................................................................................................. 71 7. Summary ................................................................................................................... 75 8. Zusammenfassung ...................................................................................................