Data from: Different effects of fire age and fire recurrence on grass and woody plant chemistry in Kafue National Park, Zambia
Data files
Sep 04, 2023 version files 12.69 KB
Abstract
In savannas, fire and herbivores are important drivers of natural ecosystem processes. Fire is also used intensively for management purposes. However, reported fire effects differ between studies. Reasons for these differences are still poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effects of fire on leaf chemistry of grasses and woody plants in the savanna of the Busanga Flood Plain, Zambia, in relation to the time elapsed between plant sampling and the last fire (fire age) and the frequency of fires during the last 16 years (fire recurrence). We analyzed leaves for their nitrogen, carbon and fiber concentrations, and estimated their metabolizable energy content, reflecting feed quality for browsers and grazers. Grasses and woody plants differed in all chemical components and showed different responses to fire. Grass quality was higher at sites burnt in the year of sample collection than at sites burnt only in previous years, but did not change under different fire recurrences. Leaves of woody plants did not differ in relation to fire age but their quality increased with increasing fire recurrence. In woody plants, the carbon content responded to the interaction between fire age and fire recurrence, indicating changes in carbon allocation in response to fire. Thus, burning increased feed quality for grazers and browsers but on different temporal scales. The scale effects may contribute to the differences in resource allocation described by different studies. They merit more attention in management decisions as well as in future studies on fire effects in savanna systems.
README: Title of Dataset:
Different effects of fire age and fire recurrence on grass and woody plant chemistry in Kafue National Park, Zambia
Description of the Data and file structure:
Table S1 Background information for plant samples from the Busanga Flood Plain, Kafue National Park, Zambia. Concentrations of chemical as % dry matter; Metabolizable Energy (Metab. Energy) in kcal/g dry matter.
Dataset
- Site: Sampling site assigned along the 60 km transect that was previously used for mammal trapping (Namukonde et al., 2017a,b; 2018; Namukonde & Simukonda, 2018).
- Coordinates: Location of each sampling site based on the latitude and longitude measured in degrees, minutes and seconds.
- Sampling date: Dates at which leaf samples were collected from the sampling sites.
- Habitats: Based on the dominant vegetation types of the Kafue National Park namely, grassland, Miombo Woodland and Termitaria.
- Fire age: Time elapsed since the last fire. Categories for fire age were: fire that occurred during the year of plant collection (= recent burns) and fires experienced in years prior to plant collection (burns of previous years). Our classifications of fire age were verified by park staff and tour operators.
- Fire recurrence: High or low fire recurrence areas. Areas of low fire recurrence experienced seven or fewer burns between 2000 and 2013. High fire recurrence areas experienced eight to fourteen fires during this period.
- Species: Green leaves of dominant grasses and tree species from the sampling sites.
- Growth form: Plant growth (tree of grass) form from which leaves were collected.
- For all the leaves collected we considered the content of nitrogen (N), carbon (C), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin, hemicellulose, ash and Metabolizable Energy (ME). All concentrations are expressed as percent dry matter save for ME that is expressed as kcal/g.
- Missing values are denoted by “-“ . Additional details are available in the article.
Sharing/access Information:
Public domain
Data was derived from the following sources:
Field Observations in the Kafue National Park, Zambia
Code/Software
None