Plant species monitoring inventories of South-east Burkina Faso (study sites 5 and 7)

Vegetation relevés according to Braun-Blanquet(1964), changed by Wilmanns (2007) Different savanna- and land use types of different sites/habitats are recorded (young, medium, old fallows, uncultivated areas of different soil types (laterit, vertisols, cambisols)). The vegetation sampling was done within plots, separately for the herb and for the woody layer according to the method of Braun-Blanquet (1964). The plots of the woody layer are 900 m² (30 m x 30 m) (minimum area) in size. The herb layer is 25m² (minimum area) in size and extended to a size of 100 m² for comparison purpose with other current studies. The plots of the herb layer are situated in the plots of the woody layer. To distinguish the woody and the shrub layer, the shrub layer is measured to a maximum limit of 5 m in height. However, for the differentiation of shrub and herb layer no height limit is reasonable. The limit complies with the height of the herbaceous layer (between 1-1.5m sometimes even 2.0-2.5 m). The vegetation cover of all species in the plot as well as the individual plant species cover is estimated following the cover abundance scale of Braun-Blanquet (1964), changed by Wilmanns (2007). The proportion of bare ground is additionally measured. In total 126 vegetation relevés are recorded with 281 herbaceous and 96 woody species.