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Seasonal Leaf Dynamics Across A Tree Density Gradient In A Brazilian Savanna, William A. Hoffman, Edson Rangel Da Silva Jr., Gustavo C. Machado, Sandra J. Bucci, Fabian G. Scholz, Guillermo Goldstein, Frederick C. Meinzer
Seasonal Leaf Dynamics Across A Tree Density Gradient In A Brazilian Savanna, William A. Hoffman, Edson Rangel Da Silva Jr., Gustavo C. Machado, Sandra J. Bucci, Fabian G. Scholz, Guillermo Goldstein, Frederick C. Meinzer
USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications
Interactions between trees and grasses that influence leaf area index (LAI) have important consequences for savanna ecosystem processes through their controls on water, carbon, and energy fluxes as well as fire regimes. We measured LAI, of the groundlayer (herbaceous and woody plants <1-m tall) and shrub and tree layer (woody plants >1-m tall), in the Brazilian cerrado over a range of tree densities from open shrub savanna to closed woodland through the annual cycle. During the dry season, soil water potential was strongly and positively correlated with grass LAI, and less strongly with tree and shrub LAI. By the end of the dry season, LAI of grasses, groundlayer dicots …1-m>