Prediction models for estimating foliar and fruit dry biomasses of five Savannah tree species in the West African Sahel

Abstract

The objective of the study was to develop models for estimation of leaf and fruit biomasses of Faidherbia albida Delile, Prosopis africana (Guill. Perrott. and Rich.) Taub, Piliostigma reticulatum (DC.) Hochst, Bauhinia rufescens Lam. and Ziziphus mauritiana Lam in the West African Sahel. Direct evaluation of leaf and fruit biomass through destructive method was used to estimate the biomasses of fruits and leaves. Diameter at breast height and crown diameter were candidate explanatory variables and both were significant (p<0.01) estimators of biomass for all species except Faidherbia albida predicting leaf biomass (p=0.33) and Prosopis africana predicting fruit biomass (p=0.13). The model fit values for all models were R 2 ≥0.80 other than the foregoing two exceptions. The conclusion related to the objective was that the models are well suited to estimate leaf and fruit production of the five Savannah species in the parkland ecosystem of the African Sahel with the two exceptions.