Spatial diversity of dry savanna woodlands: Assessing the spatial diversity of a dry savanna woodland stand in northern Namibia using neighbourhood-based measures.

Abstract

The dry woodland savannas of Namibia are of significant socio-economic importance. The paper tests the suitability of a number of diversity indicators developed for species poor systems in Europe in the woodland context. The indicators that were tested included the species significant mingling index, MSp, the measure of surround and the uniform angle index. The simple application of the methods permit relatively unschooled crews to conduct an enumeration in the field. The results show that the indicators do not only display current diversity status, but also reflect the ecological context of the individual species.