Flooding and biomass relationships

Dr Paul Scholte, Chief Technical Advisor at Yemen's Socotra Archipelago Conservation and Development Programme, has alerted us to his recent publication, Maximum flood depth characterizes above-ground biomass in African seasonally shallowly flooded grasslands in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Tropical Ecology. The article reports a study that assessed the impact of reflooding on the Logone floodplain in Cameroon and compared observations with those made in floodplains in Sudan, Zambia and in the inner Niger Delta. Scholte's study results indicate that increases of above-ground biomass, including grasses, accompany raised water levels. You can find the article, as well as Dr Scholte's book, Floodplain rehabilitation and the future of conservation & development : adaptive management of success in Waza-Logone, Cameroon, in HOORC's Library.