Lamto: Structure, Functioning, and Dynamics of a Savanna Ecosystem

About this book

This book synthesizes 30 years of ecological research conducted at Lamto in Cote d'ivoire about the structure, function, and dynamics of a humid savanna. The research is unique due to the duration of the study, the diversity of the approaches, and the integrative view of the energy and nutrient fluxes related to the dynamics of the vegetation.

From the publisher's announcement:

Known as "a dream place for scientists" the Lamto savannas, located just on the edge of the Cote d'Ivoire rain forests, are one of the only savannas in the world where ongoing ecological research has endured for over forty years. Drawing from and synthesizing this abundance of research, the book examines the structure, function, and dynamics of the Lamto humid savanna. Beginning with the history of the Lamto ecology station, proceeding on to an overview of the major enivronmental conditions of the site, and specifically examining the integrative view of energy and nutrient fluxes relative to the dynamics of the region's vegetation, this long and exacting work is as unique and treasured as Lamto itself.

Contents

History of the Lamto ecology station.- Geology.- landform and soils.- Climate.- Environmental constraints on living organisms.- Vegetation.- Soil-plant-atmosphere exchanges.- Biomass cycle and primary production.- Tree/grass interactions (Mordelet.- Le Roux).- Modeling vegetation structure and functioning.- Modification of the savanna functioning by herbivores.- Origin.- distribution and composition of soil organic matter.- Soil carbon and organic matter dynamics.- Perturbations of soil carbon dynamics by soil fauna.-. Nitrogen inputs and outputs.- Nitrogen dynamics in the soil-plant system.- Role of soil fauna in nitrogen cycling.- Spatial pattern.- dynamics and reproductive biology of the grass community.- Structure.- long-term dynamics and demography of the tree community (Gignoux et al).- Modeling tree and grass dynamics: from demographic to spatially explicit models.- Importance of structure-functioning-dynamics relations.- Perspectives: from the Lamto experience to critical issues for savanna ecology research.

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