Impact of climate and land use change on plant diversity patterns in Burkina Faso between 2000 and 2050YvonneBachmannGoethe University Frankfurt, EU Project UNDESERTMax von Laue Str. 13Frankfurt60438GermanyYvonneBachmannassociatedPartyJonathanHeubesCo-owner2013-10-23Future climate and land use changes are predicted to have a strong impact on the distribution patterns of plant species in West Africa as shown by Heubes et al. (2013). Heubes et al. (2013) showed that the flora of Burkina Faso will be primarily negatively impacted by future climate and land use changes. The more humid regions in southern Burkina Faso were stronger affected by species loss than the Sahel. Climate change was more important than land use change. However, for a profound understanding of the causes and effects of degradation for the local population it is not enough to investigate only the general patterns of plant diversity, but to get into detail with specific species groups which for example are of high value for human wellbeing in the savannas.
The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of climate and land use changes on the diversity patterns of different species groups occurring in Burkina Faso. Considered are highly valued species (food plants and medical plants) and species of different life form groups (Phanerophytes, therophytes, annual and perennial grasses). The temporal frame is 2000 and 2050.biodiversityburkina fasoclimate changehighly valued speciesland use changesahelsavannaspecies distribution models sdmObtain permission from data set owner(s)Burkina Faso-5.53312.433115.09979.383120002050YvonneBachmannGoethe University Frankfurt, EU Project UNDESERTMax von Laue Str. 13Frankfurt60438Germanybachmann@bio.uni-frankfurt.deSpecies distribution modeling of patterns of highly valued species and plants of different life form groupsWe used 770 modeled plant species distribution maps which were elaborated by Heubes et al. (2013). Heubes et al. (2013) predicted the current (Worldclim data for 2000, Hijmans et al. 2005; http://www.wordclim.org) and future (Miroc3.2medres data for 2050, Center for Climate System Research, Japan) spatial distribution of 1,390 plant species of Burkina Faso and the neighboring countries based on three climatic factors: Drought index, minimum temperature of the coldest month (Tmin) and precipitation in the driest quarter (Precdry). The DI is a proxy for the water availability (Scholes 1997) and is defined as the ratio of annual mean precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (PET).) The Precdry and Tmin variables are limiting factors and have previously been shown to be important determinants in West African (Heubes et al. 2011). The species occurrence points resulted from Heubes et al. (2013).
Besides climate data Heubes et al. (2013) integrated the dynamic and spatially explicit land use and land cover model LandSHIFT (Schaldach et al. 2011) in their species distribution models at a resolution of 0.1°. The SDM used was the one-class support vector machine. LandSHIFT uses biophysical and socio-economic drivers to simulate agricultural development on regional and continental scales and has been tested for the African continent in previous studies (e. g. Alcamo et al. 2011). We updated the plant species table of the 770 herb and woody species of Burkina Faso with information about the following categories:
• Highly valued species (Food/Medical species)
• Life forms
• Annual/Perennial grasses.
We considered 24 food species and 27 species with medical uses, which are important and frequently used in Burkina Faso (classification according to Thiombiano & Kampmann 2010). In regard to life forms 324 species belonged to phanerophytes and 245 to therophytes (classification according to Thiombiano et al. 2012). 83 of the grass species were annual grasses and 55 perennial grasses (classification according to Thiombiano et al. 2012).
For each category the species distribution maps of all species of this group were summed up in ArcGIS 10 (ESRI 2010) for the years 2000 and 2050 respectively (Heubes et al. 2013) to compile species diversity maps.attached_fileNot authorized to access resourceOthertimeseriesPlant diversity patterns were modeled for 2000 and 2050otherPlant diversity patterns were modeled for 2000 and 2050