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Title Tree growth monitoring, a way of detecting the response of trees to climate change, and an African Tree Growth Network (ATGN) as a vision for the future

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Author(s) Gliniars, R.(1); Becker, S.(1); Musila, W.(1,2); Oesker, M.(1); Todt, H.(1); Dalitz, H.(1);

Presenting author Gliniars, R.

Institution(s) 1) Institute of Botany, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart; (2) National Museum of Kenya

Keywords girth increment; tree growth characteristics; dendrometer band; climate change

Abstract Little is known about the growth response of tropical trees to climatic factors and yet this is of great concern in times of climate change. The climate has been measured for centuries, and dendrochronology has long been used for tree ring dating, particularly in the Northern hemisphere. Tropical trees often form annual tree rings too, as a response to dry weather periods which occur in many tropical forests (especially in Africa) The detection of short term responses of tree growth to climate change is best achieved by observing the living plant. This method has been applied to a total of 1210 trees (>= 10cm DBH) from 103 tree species in Kakamega Forest, Kenya and Budongo Forest, Uganda within the BIOTA framework since 2003 and 2004 respectively. These studies show that there are clear differences in growth rates of the same species in the two forests due to the different climatic conditions and/ or the soil fertility.
In a future concept similar techniques of observing tree growth, climate and soil fertility should be encouraged in other African countries as part of an African Tree Growth Network (ATGN).
The aim is to develop monitoring stations in each country and enable the local institutions to continue the monitoring later on independently. Ideally both dry and wet vegetation types with overlapping key species all over Africa should be monitored over a longer period of time.

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