ArticleAnnals of botany2025
Bark investment is key to forest expansion into African savannas by conferring resistance to fire and seasonal drought.
Article in Annals of botany, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsForest expansion into savannas is widespread even though fire and seasonal drought provide environmental conditions against encroachment by forest specialists. A distinct suite of species can establish under savanna trees, forming bush clumps and facilitating forest establishment. Understanding the functional traits of clump-forming species is crucial for uncovering encroachment mechanisms and devising management strategies. Bark likely plays a key role in enabling clump initiation. Fire resistance can be achieved by accumulation of outer bark thickness (OBT), height and/or stem diameter (SD), while drought resistance may be enhanced by greater inner bark thickness (IBT), associated with water and carbohydrate storage.
methodsWe selected representative savanna, clump-forming and closed-canopy species (ecological categories) at two South African sites experiencing forest expansion and differing in rainfall and fire frequency. We compared OBT-SD and IBT-SD allometries across ecological categories and sites and examined whether categories separated along axes reflecting fire/drought resistance (OBT and IBT) and resource allocation strategy (density and water content, leaf size). KEY
resultsOBT-SD scaling of clump-forming species was more similar to savanna than forest species, and savanna species at the more fire-prone savanna had steeper OBT-SD scaling, consistent with high OBT providing fire protection in early clump formation. Similar IBT-SD slope across groups was consistent with similar metabolic needs, while higher intercepts in savanna and clump-forming species indicated higher water storage. 'Cheap' low-density tissues in savanna species allow fast accumulation of SD and OBT and resistance to fire topkill. Closed-canopy species had denser tissues and thin stems and bark for a given height, while the clump-forming species were intermediate.
conclusionsBark and probably other traits are key in the capacity of some species to form bush clumps. Identifying these traits and the mechanisms underlying clump formation is essential for managing encroached savannas and grasslands.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.