A Phytosociological synthesis of Mopaneveld

Abstract

Mopaneveld, a vegetation type dominated by Colophospermum mopane, covers an area of approximately 550 000 km2 over eight countries in southern Africa. A phytosociological synthesis of this extensive vegetation type is presented. TWINSP AN classification was based on existing, adequate, raw vegetation data of southern African Mopaneveld, which included fifteen data sets. Despite the limitations in sound vegetation data, 2 298 releves contributed to the identification of seven vegetation types and six major plant communities by the application of TWINSP AN. A new method to treat large vegetation data sets is also presented. The wealth of adequate vegetation data from the South African Lowveld Mopaneveld motivated further analysis of this vegetation type. Four major plant communities were identified of which two are discussed in this dissertation. Apart from the phytosociological contribution of this study, TWINSP AN results revealed motivation for the southern African Mopaneveld being an eventdriven system which follows non-equilibria! models to explain vegetation change.