Table Of ContentSpatial patterns of West-African plant diversity along a
climatic gradient from coast to Sahel
Dissertation
zur
Erlangung des Doktorgrades (Dr. rer. nat.)
der
Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der
Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
vorgelegt von
Sié Sylvestre DA
aus
Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
Bonn, Mai 2010
Angefertigt mit Genehmigung der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen
Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott
2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka
Tag der Promotion: 29. Juni 2010
Erscheinungsjahr: 2010
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Preface and Acknowledgements
Preface and Acknowledgements
This thesis was carried out at the Nees Institute for Biodiversity of Plants, at the
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in the framework of the BIOTA
Africa Project “Analysis of the African biodiversity and development of sustainable
conservation strategies integrating the effects of climate change and landuse” led by
Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education
and Research (BMBF). It was also supported by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und
Literatur, Mainz.
In the very first place, I would like to express my warmest thanks to my supervisor Prof.
Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott for accepting me in his working group and giving me the chance
and opportunity to conduct a PhD project on the fascinating field of biodiversity
mapping for protection and sustainable use of natural resources. I am deeply grateful for
his excellent guidance and constructive criticisms and also for his continuous
motiviation to constantly increase my knowledge in the field of biodiversity research.
Vielen Dank Professor!
Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka (Universität Frankfurt), who kindly agreed to co-
supervise this thesis. He is gratefully acknowledged for his critical reading and fruitful
comments.
I am deeply indebted to Prof. Dr. Adjima Thiombiano (Université de
Ouagadougou/Burkina Faso) for the fruitful discussions we had in Burkina Faso and
during his stays in Germany, and for the continuous support in all stages of this study.
He also gave me the inspiration by his lectures and courses during my early studies and
raised my interest in the field of plant ecology.
I deeply appreciate the support from Prof. Dr. Sita Guinko, Prof. Dr. Jeanne Frémiot de
Chantal Millogo/ Rasolodimby and Prof. Dr. Joseph I. Boussim (Laboratoire de
Biologie et Écologie Végétales – Université de Ouagadougou).
This thesis would not have been possible without the constant support and
encouragements of the members of the BIOMAPS working group at the Nees Institute.
I remain deeply grateful for their constant advice and invaluable input throughout the
termination of this thesis, for creating a pleasant working atmosphere and for their
sincere help during my stay in Germany. First of all, I would like to express my sincere
gratitude to Dr. Jan Henning Sommer for his constant disposability despite his
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Preface and Acknowledgements
enormous daily task of responsibilities. I remain deeply grateful to him for his useful
comments and fruitful suggestions. I wish to extend appreciations to my office mates
and PhD-fellows, Katharina Sabellek and Jaime Ricardo García Márquez for the
convivial atmosphere and for helping me very much to overcome the challenges
inherent to the different analysis. I would like to express my gratitude to my current and
former colleagues of the BIOMAPS group, Dr. Holger Kreft, Dr. Jens Mutke, Dr. Daud
Rafiqpoor, Dr. Nils Köster, Dr. Wolfgang Küper, and Sylvie Dugay for fruitful and very
helpful discussions and suggestions. Many thanks to all my colleagues at the Nees
Institute for Biodiversity of Plants, University of Bonn for different kind of support. I
thank the student assistants (“HIWIs”) for their valuable contribution to this work: Katja
Seis, Pascal Wauer, Laurens Geffert, Christian Haase, Anne-Marie Schnell, and
specially Sebastian Eschweiler who helped me a lot to solve any kind of technical
problems. Es war immer richtig toll mit Euch!
Thanks to all members of the BIOTA West project network for the good working
atmosphere and the synergies derived by our collaborative work. Special thanks to
anybody who provided data in this context, in particular to Prof. Dr. Adjima
Thiombiabno, Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka, Dr. Marco Schmidt, and Dr. Cyrille Chatelain for
providing fine scale plant disitribution data, and to Dr. Jakob Fahr, Matthias Herkt and
Dr. Martin Wegmann for preparing einvironmental datasets. I further appreciate the
contribution of numerous scientists and institutions to the development of the
Biogeographic Information System on African Plant Diversity.
I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues: Oumarou Sambaré, Dr. Amadé
Ouédraogo, Dr. Oumarou Ouédraogo, Dr. Salifou Traoré, Blandine Nacoulma, Assan
Gnoumou, at the “Laboratoire de Biologie et Écologie Végétale de l’Université de
Ouagadougou”, Jean-Paul Ouédraogo, Dénis Wambéogo, Belemnaba Lazar, Côme
Linsoussi, Noellie Yao, Dr. Lazar Tia, Dr. Moses Tita Mogho Njoya, Ngome Ajebe
Francis and Kelvin Mtei, for their constant encouragements.
Finally my special thanks to my loving mother for her never-ending support and
blessing despite the distance, my gratitude to my brothers and sisters, Simplice,
Philippe, Fernand, Marthe and Louise who have constantly encouraged me to achieve
my goals.
Vielen Dank für alles! - Merci pour tout! - Thank you very much for everything!
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Table of contents
Table of Contents
1. General introduction..................................................................................................1
1.1 Spatial patterns of biodiversity...............................................................................2
1.2 Delineation of biogeographical regions..................................................................5
1.3 Biodiversity and climate change............................................................................7
1.4 General features of West African plant biodiversity..............................................9
1.5 Institutional background of the thesis...................................................................11
2. Aims of the study......................................................................................................13
3. Patterns of vascular plant species richness along a climatic gradient and across
protected areas in West Africa....................................................................................15
3.1 Abstract.................................................................................................................15
3.2 Introduction..........................................................................................................16
3.3 Data and Methods.................................................................................................19
3.4 Results..................................................................................................................23
3.5 Discussion.............................................................................................................29
3.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................32
4. Quantitative delineation of phytogeographical regions based on modeled plant
species distributions in West Africa............................................................................33
4.1. Abstract................................................................................................................33
4.2. Introduction.........................................................................................................34
4.3. Data and Methods................................................................................................36
4.4. Results.................................................................................................................39
4.5. Discussion............................................................................................................46
4.6 Conclusion and perspectives................................................................................51
5. Prediction of species richness and shift in phytogeographic regions under
climate change in West Africa.....................................................................................53
5.1 Abstract.................................................................................................................53
5.2 Introduction..........................................................................................................54
5.3 Data and Methods.................................................................................................56
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Table of contents
5.4 Results..................................................................................................................59
5.5 Discussion.............................................................................................................65
5.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................69
6. General conclusions..................................................................................................71
7. Summary...................................................................................................................75
8. Zusammenfassung....................................................................................................77
9. Résumé.......................................................................................................................79
10. References................................................................................................................81
List of Figures.............................................................................................................103
List of Tables...............................................................................................................105
List of Abbreviations..................................................................................................106
Appendix.....................................................................................................................107
Curriculum vitae........................................................................................................119
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