Vegetation-environment relationships in a catchment containing a dambo in central Zimbabwe

Abstract

Seasonally saturated wetlands, known as dambos, are a common landscape element throughout much of southern Africa. The diversity of species composition within catchments containing dambos is widely attributed to hydrological conditions, but plant-water relationships are poorly established. In this paper a detailed classification and a vegetation map are presented for a small catchment in central Zimbabwe containing a dambo. Canonical Correspondence Analysis has been applied to explore the link between vegetation composition and environmental variables. This confirms that water is a key influence in species distribution and small-scale patterning of vegetation within the catchment.