Abstract
Key Message
Strychnos spinosa growth was less responsive than its fruit production, to tree size, protection status and climate; its fruit production increased with tree size, and more so on protected sites.
Abstract
Abiotic and biotic mechanisms (e.g. climate, human perturbations) are presumed to shape tree growth and reproductive performances. Using the wild fruit tree Strychnos spinosa Lam., as a case study in Benin, we tested whether (and how) tree growth and fruit production were influenced by protection status (non-protected vs. protected sites), climatic zones (Sudanian vs. Sudano-Guinean zones) and size classes (tree diameter < 15 cm; 15–20 cm and > 20 cm). We also tested which climatic variables were important in predicting tree growth/fruit production. Tree growth was only influenced by size class, with higher growth rate in smaller than bigger size classes. Unlike tree growth, fruit production varied significantly with climate and protection status (higher fruit production in Sudano-Guinean than in sudanian zone, and on protected sites than non-protected sites). Fruit production also increased with tree size, and more so on protected sites than non-protected sites. The effect of protection status on fruit production also varied with climatic zones, with protected trees having more fruits than non-protected trees in Sudano-Guinean zone, while both protected and non-protected trees showed similar fruit production in the Sudanian zone. There was a trade-off mechanism between fruit production and growth, which was more pronounced on protected sites. Our study showed that both climate and protection status were considerably important for fruit production, in significant positive (resp. negative) effects of temperature and relative humidity, via mediation by tree size in protected (resp. non-protected) sites. These underlying drivers should be taken into account when predicting scenario for fruit yield under future climate.
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The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the West African Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) for the financial assistance. SM is supported by the British Ecological Society (BES)—Grant EA21/1430, which enabled fruitful collaboration. Our gratitude also goes to all field assistants for their valuable efforts and to anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the earlier versions of this manuscript.
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This research was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through West African Science Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) PhD scholarship and a research budget allowance.
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HGGA: funding acquisition, conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft. SM: formal analysis, visualization, validation, writing—original draft, review and editing. RI: methodology, writing—review and editing. MWK: supervision, writing—review and editing. AEA: conceptualization, supervision, resources, writing—review and editing.
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Avakoudjo, H.G.G., Mensah, S., Idohou, R. et al. Effects of climate and protection status on growth and fruit yield of Strychnos spinosa Lam., a tropical wild fruit tree in West Africa. Trees 36, 1117–1129 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02276-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02276-2