By
J.I. House & D.O. Hall
Division of Life Sciences, King's College London

 
  

 

 Table 3: Biomass reported for tropical grasslands and savannas

 

Aboveground

Belowground

Total

Aboveground biomass (t/ha)

Roots

biomass

biomass

biomass

Site

Source

Wood

Tree leaf

Grass

(t/ha)

Total (t/ha)

%

(t/ha)

Drought-deciduous forests

Kurukshutra, India

Rajvanshi & Gupta (1985)

53.12

3.29

1.33

57.74

Brigalow, Australia Dalbergia sissoo

Moore et al (1967)

158.1

11

0

40.7

169.1

Oro Forest, Nigeria Acacia harpephylla

Fatubarin (1984)

132

132

Mean total aboveground biomass

119.6

20

149.5

Woodlands (all Brachystegia spp.) = Miombo woodlnds

Kasapa, Zaire

Malaisse et al (1975)

101.7

4.82

106.52

Makaholi, Zimbabwe

Ward & Cleghorn (1964)

44.6

2.29

46.89

Zambia

40

40

Marondera, Zimbabwe

Frost (in Scholes & Hall, 1996)

39.73

2.74

0.1

42.57

Dukwe, Botswana

Tietema (1993)

81.9

81.9

Mean total aboveground biomass

63.6

25

84.8

Average of above two classes = Olson et al. (1983) "tropical dry forest and woodland" class

117.1

Savannas

Sengwa, Zimbabwe

Guy (1981)

22.5

0.53

23.03

Cobar, Australia

Harrington & Johns (1982)

36

3.2

1

40.2

Nylsvley, S. Africa Burkea africana

Scholes & Walker (1983)

15.54

0.748

1.5

7.1

17.788

Waterberg, Namibia B. africana

Rutherford (1982)

22.3

22.3

Klaserie, S. Africa Colophospermum Mopane

Scholes (1988)

20.84

0.8

0.5

22.14

Klaserie, S. Africa Acacia nigrescens

Scholes (1988)

5.05

0.664

1

6.714

Klaserie, S. Africa Combretum apic.

Scholes (1988)

10.5

0.759

0.5

11.759

Kruger, S. Africa Combretum apiculatum

Dayton (1978)

15.4

1.5

0.5

17.4

SE Zimbabwe Colophospermum Mopane

Kelly & Walker (1976)

19.7

19.7

Hwange, Zimbabwe Terminalia sericea

Rushworth (1978)

3.65

3.21

1.23

34.4

8.09

Khakhea, Botswana Acacia/Combretum

Tietema (1993)

8.05

8.05

Kang, Botswana

Tietema (1993)

18.02

18.02

Morwa Forest, Botswana A. tortilis

Tietema (1993)

17.5

17.5

Morwa Hill, Botswana Croton/Combretum

Tietema (1993)

30.87

30.87

Dikeletsane, Botswana, Acacia/Combretum

Tietema (1993)

32.97

32.97

Mean total aboveground biomass (incorporates several Olson et al. savanna classes)

19.8

30

28.2
   

Notes:
Table re-compiled from Scholes & Hall (1996) Table 4.4, totals re-calculated, hence values differ slightly.
Categories and groupings assigned by Scholes & Hall (1996) according to their judgement.

 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Bob Scholes (CSIR, South Africa), Xavier Le Roux (INRA, Clermont-Ferrand, France), Jonathan Scurlock (ORNL, USA) and Joe Scanlan (Department of Natural Resources, Queensland, Australia) for providing information and making corrections to the manuscript. Dale Kaiser & Sonja Jones (ORNL, USA) for calculating tropical % of the Olson et al (1983) "grasslands" category.

Sadly, David Hall passed away in August 1999 before this chapter was published. His knowledge and love of savannas was only surpassed by his eagerness to learn and teach.

 
REFERENCES
Table 1: Previous estimates of area, biomass and NPP of savannas and grasslands
Table 2: Broad plant functional types found in African savannas (from Scholes et.al., 1997)
Table 4: Primary production reported for tropical grasslands and savannas
Table 5: Biophysical properties, fluxes and efficiencies
Figure 2: The relationship between total NPP and aboveground NPP

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