African Savanna Woody Cover and Ecosystem Drivers

This dataset contains site-level measurements from 854 locations across Africa, used to analyze the drivers of woody cover in savanna ecosystems. It includes soil characteristics, vegetation data, herbivore estimates, and precipitation measurements, compiled for the 2005 study by Sankaran et al. The data is hosted by ORNL and appears on multiple platforms, indicating its established use in ecological research.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the linear relationship between Mean Annual Precipitation (MAP) and maximum woody cover in arid savannas.
• Modeling how fire occurrence and herbivory data interact with soil properties to reduce woody cover below its climatic potential.
• Investigating the threshold (approximately 650 mm MAP) where savanna stability shifts and disturbances become necessary for tree-grass coexistence.
• Regional comparisons of soil texture and nitrogen levels across African savanna sites.
• Validating ecological theories on the primary drivers of savanna structure using a continent-scale dataset.

Strengths

• Includes a substantial sample of 854 sites across the African continent.
• Data is directly linked to a seminal, peer-reviewed publication (Sankaran et al., 2005).
• Measures multiple interacting drivers: precipitation, fire, herbivory, and soil properties.

Limitations

• Specific column names and the exact row count within files are not provided in the available metadata.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' field: one source lists 2003, while others list 2026, casting doubt on data maintenance timelines.

Provenance

Source

Sankaran et al., 2005, as hosted by ORNL.

Collection Method

Site measurements and estimates gathered from across Africa for ecological analysis.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-13 04:51:14.012327

Geography

854 sites across Africa.