INVESTIGADORES
ENRICO Lucas
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Testing the importance of climate in controlling the distribution of savannas in South Africa vs. Argentina.
Autor/es:
MONCRIEFF, G.; BOND, W.J.; DÍAZ, S. M.; JAUREGUIBERRY, P.; ENRICO, L.
Lugar:
Skukuza
Reunión:
Encuentro; 9th Annual Savanna Science Networking Meeting.; 2011
Institución organizadora:
South African National Parks
Resumen:
It is
widely believed that the distribution of savannas, along with other
major biomes of the world, is primarily determined by climate. We
tested the importance of climate in determining savanna distribution by
developing a climate envelope model for South African savannas. We
then used the model to predict where savannas should occur in northern
Argentina, which shares a similar semi-arid to mesic climate and
latitudinal range to South Africa. Contrary to model predictions, most
of the vegetation predicted to be savanna in Argentina is dry deciduous
forest (chaco). We explore other factors
that may explain the striking non-convergence of sub-tropical vegetation
on the two continents. The poor performance of climate in predicting
spatial patterns of savannas in a different region undermines
confidence in simple climate-based predictions of the future
distribution of South African savannas under global change.