PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #20: Arid Lands Restoration.
Tuesday, August 6. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC
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Aloe secundiflora shrubs as facilitators in Kenyan rangelands, and their potential use in restoration.
KING, ELIZABETH*,1, 1 University of California - Davis, Davis, CA
ABSTRACT- The spatial pattern of vegetation in heavily grazed and eroded savannas in Baringo District, Kenya is strongly clumped and often focused around succulent, unpalatable Aloe secundiflora (Liliaceae) shrubs. To investigate whether facilitative interactions may be involved in the formation of vegetation islands, I compared the vegetation and soil characteristics around naturally-occurring Aloe shrubs, other non-succulent shrubs, and randomly selected loci with no shrub cover. Abundance of other species, number of species, amount of leaf litter, soil seed bank, soil retention, and multiple measures of soil fertility were all significantly greater around Aloe shrubs than around non-succulent shrubs or in areas with no shrub cover. The pattern strongly supports the hypothesis that Aloe shrubs act as facilitators for other plant species under the harsh conditions of aridity and overgrazing at the study site. I am currently conducting interaction experiments and vegetation monitoring around transplanted Aloe shrubs to further test this hypothesis. In overgrazed and degraded semi-arid savannas in Kenya, the propagation and out-planting of indigenous Aloe plants as nurse shrubs may be an effective restoration strategy. The feasibility of developing a rural economic enterprise based on the sustainable harvest of valuable medicinal sap from propagated Aloe shrubs is also being investigated.
KEY WORDS: Aloe secundiflora, facilitation, restoration