SAFARI 2000 Vegetation Cover Characteristics, Kalahari Transect, Wet Season 2000

The sites visited showed interesting degrees of variability despite the apparent homogeneity of the Kalahari sands and predominantly semi-arid savanna shrub-woodlands vegetation cover (Ringrose et al., 2003).At each site, twelve individual locations were chosen by random stratified techniques within a 30-km radius at each location, based on differences in topography, soils, and known disturbance, to help determine local variability (Huennecke et al., 2001).

Data collection methods were identical at each location (Ringrose et al., 1996; 1998): (1) identification and enumeration of all species along 3 x 90-m transects, spaced 45-m apart; (2) visual estimation (tape measure and pacing) of canopy diameter along each transect; and (3) visual estimation of percent live and dead herbaceous cover, litter, and bare soil using 3 x 50 m2 quadrats spaced at 30-m intervals along each transect.