Plant functional traits of herbaceous and woody species of South-east Burkina Faso (study sites 5 and 7)

The dataset contains data on plant functional traits of all savanna plant species (woody and herbaceous) recorded in the vegetation relevés of 2012 and 2013 in Fada N’Gourma and Pama (see data on vegetation relevés). The dataset contains data collected in the field. Additional data from databases and literature will be added to the dataset in the future. Plant functional traits are morphological, physiological and phenological features of plants that are measured at the level of an individual (Violle et al., 2007). The plant functional trait analysis aims at describing the functional response of organisms to the environment (biotic or abiotic) (Wellstein et al., 2011). Until now only three studies (Devineau & Fournier 2005, Schmidt et al. 2011, 2013) focused on plant functional traits in Burkina Faso. Therefore the approach of using plant functional traits as an ecological indicator for environmental changes is relatively new in Burkina Faso.