Sharp ecotones spark sharp ideas: comment on "Structural, physiognomic and above-ground biomass variation in savanna–forest transition zones on three continents – how different are co-occurring savanna and forest formations?" by Veenendaal et al. (2015)

Staal, A.; Flores, B. M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5563-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5563-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5563-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 18

Peer-reviewed comment

|

30 Sep 2015

Peer-reviewed comment |

| 30 Sep 2015

Sharp ecotones spark sharp ideas: comment on "Structural, physiognomic and above-ground biomass variation in savanna–forest transition zones on three continents – how different are co-occurring savanna and forest formations?" by Veenendaal et al. (2015)

A. Staal and B. M. Flores

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Sep 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 09 Jul 2015)
Corresponding article

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C3715: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Jul 2015
RC C4610: 'Staal and Flores 'Sharp ecotones spark sharp ideas: comment on Veenendaal et al. (2015)'.', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 Aug 2015
AC C4680: 'Response to Referee Comments', Arie Staal, 25 Aug 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (16 Sep 2015) by Michael Bahn

AR by Arie Staal on behalf of the Authors (16 Sep 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (22 Sep 2015) by Michael Bahn

Short summary

Remote sensing studies indicate that tropical forest and savanna can be alternative stable states maintained by a feedback between tree cover and fire. Veenendaal et al. (2015) attempted to refute this hypothesis with an extensive field study of the vegetation structure and soil conditions at forest–savanna transition zones. With a re-analysis of their data and a conceptual model, we show that in fact the results agree with the idea of forest–savanna bistability.