Africa’s highest mountain harbours Africa’s tallest trees

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• 作者：Andreas Hemp ; Reiner Zimmermann ; Sabine Remmele…
• 关键词：Biodiversity ; East Africa ; Entandrophragma excelsum ; Global change ; Tree growth ; Tropical submontane and lower montane forest
• 刊名：Biodiversity and Conservation
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：26
• 期：1
• 页码：103-113
• 全文大小：4178KB
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Biodiversity; Ecology; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-9710
• 卷排序：26

文摘

While world records of tree heights were set by American, Australian and Asian tree species, Africa seemed to play no role here. In our study we show that Entandrophragma excelsum (Meliaceae) found in a remote valley at Kilimanjaro has to be included in the list of the world’s superlative trees. Estimating tree age from growth rates monitored by high resolution dendrometry indicates that tall individuals may reach more than 470 years of age. A unique combination of anatomical peculiarities and favorable site conditions might explain their enormous size. The late date of this discovery of Africa’s tallest trees may be due to the comparably low study efforts at Kilimanjaro compared with other biodiversity hotspots. Since only a few square kilometers of this habitat of Entandrophragma are left, Kilimanjaro (and Africa) is about to lose not only a unique biogeographical archive with highly diverse vegetation, but also its tallest trees. The inclusion of these valleys into the immediately neighboring Kilimanjaro National Park would be an excellent and urgent possibility of protection.