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The ecology and management of African wetland vegetation: A botanical account of African swamps and shallow waterbodies PDF

354 Pages·1985·22.62 MB·English
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\' ',0 l.IChk ... {' S'bh IC.,tll .... ChoU ," F.djtldj S.bll,.,,, " H.mm • .... ME 0 I - ,.....~, ,f -iki ....... Sw~p - - - SAHARA -- --- - - - ----- ---- DESERT 20_ SOli I <. ~_~'L. Fi''''9' • Q • c • Cle, • . . - ATLANTIC ------------------ ------- o C E A N '" , 160 320 480 640 800 km. , " " = o 2' I I ---- ----------~--------- ATLANTIC o C E A N p o 0,0 \ I 30 LOlag,pi ,...... '" o '" 250 315 km Swamp LTurlrana ---Elo-sha L. ---Pan--- ,. 0- ~" --.K. • o • • ~ {jL.N.,.on L.Ki~u Se.engel, L Rug Plllln ~ Moyowosi , ~ ~wamp " """"'<r~I""'\' Malagalas. Swamp ~., ,bU,ra Swamp ~··f~ ~ ~"-_1'R"""'"'J ~':'-'l 3,' MWII'u Wan/ips The ecology and management of African wetland vegetation Geobotany 6 Series Editor M. J. A. WERGER The ecology and management of African wetland vegetation A botanical account of African swamps and shallow waterbodies edited by PATRICK DENNY 1985 DR W. JUNK PUBLISHERS A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHT I BOSTON I LANCASTER Distributors for the United States and Canada: Kluwer Boston. Inc., 190 Old Derby Street. Hingham. MA 02043. USA for the UK alld Ireland: Kluwer Academic Publishers. MTP Press Limited. Falcon House. Queen Square, Lancaster LAl lRN. England /C)/' all other cOlilllries: Kluwcr Academic Publishers Group. Distribution Center. P.O. Box 322. 3300 AH Dordrecht. The Netherlands Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: The Ecology and management of African 'Hetland vegetation. (Geobotany ; 6) Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. 1. Hetland flora--Africa--Ecology. 2. I-Ietland conservation--Africa. I. Denny, Patrick, 1939- II. SerieE. QK381.E26 1985 574.5'26325'096 84-21305 ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8929-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-5504-2 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-5504-2 Copyright © 19R5 by Dr W. Junk Publishers. Dordrecht All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reo produced. stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted in any form or by asny means. mechanical. photocopying. recording. or otherwise. without the prior written permission of the pub· lishers. Dr W. Junk Publishers. P.O. Box 163. 3300 AD Dordrccht. The Netherlands. The magnitude of the task. A satellite-view of the African Continent. This picture was transmitted by the European Space Agency"s geostationary weather satellite Meteosat-l at ll55 GMT on 31 May 1978. stationed over tbe Greenwich meridian attbe equator. Meteosat-1 orbits at 36 (X)O kilometres above the earth's surface; it remains motionless above a fixed point on the equator and scans the same ]urge area continuously. Contents Frontispiece: The magnitude of thc task. A satellite-view of the African Continent V Foreword by E. Barton Worthington, e.B.E. IX Preface by Patrick Denny XI PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Wetland vegetation and associated plant life-forms by Patrick Denny PART TWO: WATER PLANT BIOLOGY AND VEGETATION DYNAMICS 2. Submerged and floating-leaved aquatic macrophytes (euhydrophytes) by Patrick Denny 19 3. Emergent plants of permanent and seasonally-tlooded wetlands by Keith Thompson 43 4. Surface-floating aquatic macrophytes by David S. Mitchell \09 PART THREE: ECOSYSTEM STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONING 5. The structure and functioning of African euhydrophyte communities. The floating-leaved and submerged vegetation by Patrick Denny 125 6. The structure and functioning of African swamps by Clive Howard-Williams and John J. Gaudet 153 VIII PART FOUR: PROBLEMS, MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION 7. African aquatic weeds and their management by David S. Mitchell 177 8. The conservation and management of African wetlands by Clive Howard-Williams and Keith Thompson 203 9. African wetland vegetation - concluding perspective by David S. Mitchell, Patrick Denny and Clive Howard-Williams 231 PART FIVE: BiBLIOGRAPHY 10. Cross-indexed bibliography of African wetland plants and vegetation by Keith Thompson, Clive Howard-Williams and David S. Mitchell 237 INDEX Author index 317 Geographical index 321 Systematic index 329 Subject index 337 Foreword Interest in the biology of African 'wetlands' was initiated in the last century with the hypothesis that Lake Tanganyika was once part of a Jurassic sea, and was furthered by Cunnington's expedition at the beginning of this century which proved that it was not. In the late 1920's, ecological studies, encouraged by the growing importance of inland fisheries, were started hy British, French and Belgian biologists. Some twenty years later several government limnological research centres and fishery departments were established in tropical Africa, and scientific progress was accelerated. Scientific collaboration between the regions south of the Sahara was started formally in 1951 by the Scientific Council for Africa and stimulated by the International Biological Programme (1964-74) with its emphasis on biological productivity. Some of its interests were takcn on by SCOPE which recently selected continental wetlands as a Special Project; hence this book. The five authors, with-Patrick Denny as editor, have made a very valuable contribution both to science and to thc management of Africa's natural rcsourccs: thcy have filled a gap in the synthesis of knowledge about Africa's environments which is long overdue. The term 'wetland' is used today in several different contexts. For this purpose, it excludes the seas and large open inland waters. which are too deep for rooted plants, but includes the huge areas of floodplains and dambos which may change seasonally from standing water to very dry lands. Study of the vegetation, which has to suffer extremes of ecological tolerance, is important if the norms of wetland environments arc to be understood, and soundly reasoned management stratcgies are to be taken. We are led from the general bology and dynamics of different groups of waterplants to the structure and functions of the ecosystems of which they arc part. Much research in recent years has been devoted to surface-floating plants, and particularly to thc two exotic species which were accidentally introduced from Latin America to the African continent - Eichlzomias crassipes and Salvinia l1lolesta. These two have taken full advantage of man's interference with hydrological regimes in warm climates. Perhaps reservoirs and canals create ecological niches to which the indigenous Pislia and Azolla are less well suited. The socio-economie importance of wetlands is slIch that some readers will turn first to the three chapters concerned with management and conservation. On the debit side, aquatic vegetation interferes with water flow and drainage: it obstructs transport, fisheries and recreation, and favours water-related diseases; and competes with cultivated rice. On the credit side, the wetland habitats, which waterplants themselves have done mueh to create, attract and protect a wide variety of wildlife; they provide grazing and useful plant products; and supply feeding, breeding and refuge areas for fish of commercial importance. Swamps, although they lose much water to the atmosphere, also store water and keep rivers flowing during dry seasons. It is, moreover, remarkable that tropical swamps under natural conditions rate well above cultivated crops in terms of production capacity, so that they might one day add considerably to supplies of food and fibre.

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