Overgrazing strongly impedes the natural regeneration of the endemic Boswellia species on Socotra Island

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F62156489%3A43410%2F24%3A43925181" target="_blank" >RIV/62156489:43410/24:43925181 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.17221/3/2024-JFS" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.17221/3/2024-JFS</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17221/3/2024-JFS" target="_blank" >10.17221/3/2024-JFS</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Overgrazing strongly impedes the natural regeneration of the endemic Boswellia species on Socotra Island

Original language description

Frankincense trees (Boswellia spp.) worldwide are affected by a number of threats, including global warming and changing land management practices. On the Socotra Archipelago (Yemen), which harbours eleven endemic Boswellia species, grazing is generally assumed to be one of the main threats preventing natural regeneration. To test the impact of overgrazing on natural regeneration, we established an in situ experiment on four different Boswellia taxa in different areas of Socotra Island. Mortality and the height increment of seedlings were measured for a period of two/three years in five plots excluded from grazing (fenced) and in five paired control (unfenced) plots. Each plot was 50 m x 50 m in size and contained several adult trees as a source of viable seeds. Our results show that seedling mortality was significantly higher, and seedling height increment generally (4 out of 5 sites) lower in open compared to fenced plots. In the fenced plots, the number of seedlings for all species reached up to 772, with 560 surviving seedlings. In comparison, the control plots reached up to 296 seedlings, with 176 seedlings surviving after 2-3 years. The results of our experimental study indicate that grazing directly threatens the natural regeneration of the endemic Boswellia on Socotra Island. However, seedling mortality remained relatively high inside the exclosures as well, which indicates that even without the pressure of livestock grazing, other impacts remain a challenge for the future conservation of the archipelago&apos;s unique frankincense trees.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

40102 - Forestry

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Forest Science

ISSN

1212-4834

e-ISSN

1805-935X

Volume of the periodical

70

Issue of the periodical within the volume

5

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

249-263

UT code for WoS article

001233579500001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85194917864