A thesis submi.tted to the Faculty of Science, University of
the witwatersrand, Johannesburg I in the fulfillmen,,;"o:f' 't\ :he
requirements of the Degree of Magister Scienta~.
June 1992 / The present study was undertaken; withirl the South African "
savannas, to provide "insight into a j;unctional classification
of aavanna plants using ecophY$iologiLcal charact~:t's.THe
pri.mary r.:>bjective of this study Was to investigate the
vari.ation of these tt'aits throughout: the savanna, aridto
relate this variation to plant avail.able moisture and
nU~l'ie~~s•
!t was conclu.ded that~
1) no formal or specialized strategies have evolved within a
number of the study sites,
.2) unlike the woody component I neither divergellce nor
convergence was demonstrated within the grass layer,
c'
3) plant aVailable nutrients did not appear to be a major
determinant of either component. Although plant available
moistur~ proved to be unimportant in the woody layer, it
did playa role as a determinant of the grass layer, and
4) constancy of the plant traits was not demonstrated to \":
OCCllr over the gr~~ing season.
A succeisf',\lclassification' would require the components to
be separat~pl specific determinan.ts be identified for each
component, and an element of time be included into both
edaphic and biotic measurements.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/20834 |
| Date | 05 August 2016 |
| Creators | Blackmore, Andrew Craig |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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