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Differences in transpiration between a forest and an agroforestry tree species in the Sudanian belt

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Abstract

Average population growth in the African Sudanian belt is 3 % per year. This leads to a significant increase in cultivated areas at the expense of fallows and forests. For centuries, rural populations have been practicing agroforestry dominated by Vitellaria paradoxa parklands. We wanted to know whether agroforestry can improve local rainfall recycling as well as forest. We compared transpiration and its seasonal variations between Vitellaria paradoxa, the dominant species in fallows, and Isoberlinia doka, the dominant species in dry forests in the Sudanian belt. The fallow and dry forest we studied are located in northwestern Benin, where average annual rainfall is 1200 mm. Sap flow density (SFD) was measured by transient thermal dissipation, from which tree transpiration was deduced. Transpiration of five trees per species was estimated by taking into account the radial profile of SFD. The effect of the species and of the season on transpiration was tested with a generalized linear mixed model. Over the three-year study period, daily transpiration of the agroforestry trees, V. paradoxa (diameters 8–38 cm) ranged between 4.4 and 26.8 L day−1 while that of the forest trees, I. doka, (diameters 20–38 cm) ranged from 9.8 to 92.6 L day−1. Daily transpiration of V. paradoxa was significantly lower (15 %) in the dry season than in the rainy season, whereas daily transpiration by I. doka was significantly higher (13 %) in the dry season than in the rainy season. Our results indicate that the woody cover of agroforestry systems is less efficient in recycling local rainfall than forest cover, not only due to lower tree density but also to species composition.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the laboratory HydroSciences Montpellier (HSM UR050) of the French Research Institute for Development (IRD). The devices and measurements were funded jointly by the Observatory AMMA-CATCH African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis—combining the Tropical Atmosphere and the Hydrological Cycle (www.amma-catch.org), the Universe Sciences Observatory-OREME (www.oreme.univ-montp2.fr), the project “Searching for Trade-offs between Production and the Ecosystem Services Provided by Agroforestry Systems” (Recherche de compromis entre productions et services écosystémiques fournis par les systèmes agroforestiers—SAFSE, http://safse.cirad.fr/), and the Mixed International Laboratory PICASS-EAU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Hydraulique et de Maîtrise de l’Eau (LHME) de la Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques (FSA) de l’Université d’Abomey Calavi (UAC), 01 BP 526, Cotonou, Benin

    Kohomlan G. Beranger Awessou & Euloge Agbossou

  2. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)- UMR Hydrosciences Montpellier, Université Montpellier II, Case Courrier, MSE, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Kohomlan G. Beranger Awessou, Christophe Peugeot, Luc Seguis, Marie Bellanger & Josiane Seghieri

  3. IRD-UMR Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Biogéochimie des Sols et des Agro-écosystèmes, SupAgro, Bâtiment 12. 2, Place Viala, 34060, Montpellier, France

    Alain Rocheteau & Frédéric C. Do

  4. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Laboratoire d’étude des Transferts en Hydrologie et Environnement (LTHE–UMR 5564), UJF-Grenoble 1/CNRS/G-INP/IRD, 38041, Grenoble, France

    Sylvie Galle

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  1. Kohomlan G. Beranger Awessou
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  2. Christophe Peugeot
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Correspondence to Kohomlan G. Beranger Awessou.

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Awessou, K.G.B., Peugeot, C., Rocheteau, A. et al. Differences in transpiration between a forest and an agroforestry tree species in the Sudanian belt. Agroforest Syst 91, 403–413 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9937-8

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