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Population Ecology of Some Keystone Tree Species in the Jebel Marra Region of Darfur

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Population Ecology of Some Keystone Tree Species in the Jebel Marra Region of Darfur Population ecology of some keystone tree species in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur Ahmad K. Hegazy, Hasnaa A. Hosni, Hanan F. Kabiel, El-Shafie M. Badawi, Mona H. Emam & Lesley Lovett-Doust Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali SCIENZE FISICHE E NATURALI ISSN 2037-4631 Volume 29 Number 3 Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei (2018) 29:659-673 DOI 10.1007/s12210-018-0701-z 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self- archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali (2018) 29:659–673 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-018-0701-z Population ecology of some keystone tree species in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur Ahmad K. Hegazy1 · Hasnaa A. Hosni1 · Hanan F. Kabiel1 · El‑Shafe M. Badawi2 · Mona H. Emam1 · Lesley Lovett‑Doust3 Received: 17 December 2017 / Accepted: 16 April 2018 / Published online: 26 April 2018 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2018 Abstract Populations of Albizia amara, Acacia senegal, Anogeissus leiocarpus, and Balanites aegyptiaca were monitored in fve habitats in the Jebel Marra region: clay plains, sand plains, wadis, northern slopes, and southern slopes of the Jebel Marra (mountain) region. The plains and wadi habitat types had been regularly disturbed because of cycles of shifting cultivation. When land was prepared for cultivation, seedlings and juvenile plants were removed, leaving only larger adult plants, and, therefore, unstable tree populations, lacking juveniles, and growing in fallow lands. A. amara and A. senegal were more abundant than A. leiocarpus and B. aegyptiaca. The healthiest populations, with more juvenile recruits, were found in the grazing lands at higher elevations. However, A. amara and A. senegal showed stable size structure in both grazing and fal- low lands. In general, in the four study species, we see a decline in growth and reproduction (with growth measured as tree height and number of branches, and reproduction assessed in terms of number of fruits per tree and dry weight of seeds) along a progression from fallow lands to the grazing lands, and, separately, from lower to higher altitudes. The resilience potential of each species in the fallow lands indicated two distinct population resilience strategies: (1) we saw faster rebound in the case of A. amara and A. senegal and (2) slow recovery from disturbance in the case of A. leiocarpus and B. aegyptiaca which showed low juvenile recruitment in fallow lands. Keywords Land-use strategy · Semiarid savanna · Demography · Altitude · Functional traits · Population age structure · Juvenile recruitment · Population resilience · Sudan 1 Introduction * Ahmad K. Hegazy [email protected] Darfur is in the western region of Sudan; with the isolated Hasnaa A. Hosni massif of Jebel Marra (Jebel being the Arabic term for [email protected] mountain) in the center. It represents a transitional Sahe- Hanan F. Kabiel lian zone between the Sahara and the Sahelian and tropical [email protected] savanna where the arid Sahara in the northern part of the El‑Shafe M. Badawi state merges gradually to the Sahelian woodland savanna [email protected] in the south (Ahmed 1982; Wilson 2012). The Jebel Marra Mona H. Emam region lies near the geographic center of the African conti- [email protected] nent, being more than 1600 km from the sea and sitting more Lesley Lovett‑Doust than 2000 m above the surrounding land in Central Darfur [email protected] (Gindy 1984). The mountain is a stratovolcanic complex reaching more than 3000 m above sea level; this moder- 1 Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, ates the climate relative to the surrounding Sahel (Gindy Cairo University, Giza, Egypt 1984; Miehe 1986; Babikir 1988). The rainy season in Jebel 2 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Alfasher Marra is from June to September, and surface runof fows University, Darfur, Sudan into three main watersheds around the mountain: the Wadi 3 Department of Biology and Chemistry, Nipissing University, Elku, Wadi Ibra, and Wadi Azum drainage basins (Elsiddig North Bay, ON, Canada Vol.:(0123456789)1 3 Author's personal copy 660 Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali (2018) 29:659–673 2007; CBD 2009). The study area lies on the western slopes sheep, cattle and camels, where the number and types of ani- in the watershed of wadi Azum, which in turn drains into mals signify the herder’s wealth (UNEP 2013a). As the area the endorheic basin of Lake Chad. Mesic woody species are under cultivation expanded, pastoralists were forced to shift found on these western slopes, in contrast to the more xeric into more marginal areas, increasing the liklihood of overgraz- species found on the northern and eastern slopes that are ing and soil degradation (Glover 2005). subjected to drying northeasterly winds (Lebon and Rob- The third major land-use pattern in the region is that of ertson 1961; Ahmed 1983). The vegetation is classifed as “fallow land”—areas that were formerly cultivated but that “Acacia Wooded Grassland and Bush Land”; historically, it have been abandoned either because of the high costs of was home to populations of lion and greater kudu (Tragela- cultivation (Babikir 1988), or as a direct result of regional phus strepsiceros), a woodland antelope (CBD 2009). The conficts. The Jebel Marra region of Central Darfur was one soil in the area is considered highly fertile; however, it is of the most difcult areas in which to provide humanitarian subjected to overgrazing year-round, and wildfres occur assistance during recent and ongoing civil conficts (UNO- sporadically in the dry season, from September to February CHA 2015). Such abandoned areas are now being used for (Awok et al. 2013; FAO 2015). grazing, and the natural vegetation is re-establishing there. Three land-use strategies were recognized in the region: The human impact (cutting and overgrazing) is very evident upland areas used for rough pasture, land used for agricul- in these areas that had previously experienced a diferent ture (either year-round, or opportunistically when there is pattern of disturbance involving partial clearing of natural sufcient moisture), and former farmland that is lying fallow vegetation for cultivation, rather than intense herbivory. (abandoned either due to regional conficts, or due to the high Disturbance in the fallow lands is seen in terms of selec- costs of cultivation), but that is being heavily grazed. First, tive uprooting of seedlings and juveniles of tree species and rough grazing land consisting of the natural savanna vegeta- clearing of wild grasses, followed by preparation of the land tion, such areas are typically on slopes at higher elevations, for cultivation. There was a clear diference in the vigor of i.e., marginal areas that are far from villages, with no evidence trees in the grazing lands compared to those in a fallow- of tillage, that are used as rough pasture (Ahmed 2004). The cultivation rotation. Trees in the fallow lands showed more second land-use strategy is that of cultivated land located in vigorous growth, even though they were being subjected to the plains (with sandy or clay soils) and wadis (ephemeral disturbance, whereas those in the exclusively grazed lands wadis, where cultivation requires terracing of the slope). This grew poorly. version of the agricultural strategy is more “opportunist” and The present study was designed to investigate: (1) Popula- is seen near water courses (ephemeral wadis) where cultivation tion size, and age composition in each of the three environ- is carried out by “smallholders” in the “ofseason” in patches ments, for each of the four species of trees; (2) the vegetative where the water table is high, and close to the soil surface and reproductive traits of the four tree species in contrasting (Ahmed 2004). The savanna vegetation has been modifed by habitat types; and (3) Population resilience (potential for cutting small trees and clearing grasses to allow rain-fed cul- natural regeneration and maintenance of the tree populations tivation; this of course disturbs the populations of the four tree over time), for each of the four study species, in all three species. This “agro-forestry” rotation land-use system occurs environments. around villages, where adult trees remaining within feld crops It is noted that there is some confounding of altitude and are protected and harvested by farmers, while seedlings and land use, in that the upland pastures are found on the North- juveniles are removed (Miehe 1986). The most common cul- and South-facing slopes, whereas the grazed fallow lands tivated crop in the area is pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum are found in sandy and clay plains and wadi habitat types. In (L.)R. Br., which is grown mainly for human consumption addition, before the fallow lands were abandoned, and their as a staple of the local diet, and is used in many traditional soils may have received some nutrient enrichment as well as dishes in Western Sudan (Vogel and Graham 1979; Ishaq and mixing of the soil layers (from tillage) with resulting shifts Meseka 2014). Other lands adjacent to the study area, within in the relative abundance of fungi and bacteria in the soil the Jebel Marra region, indeed all over Darfur, are cultivated microbial community.
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