Table 3 The mean plant water potential (±SD) of C. mopane recorded at Salambala in different seasons (dry season in August 2001, ‘extreme’ dry season in June 2002 and early rainy season in November 2002). The Number of observations is in brackets; all means are significant at P < 0.05 (Tukey LSD test)
Date, site | Number of observations | Plant water potentials (MPa) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pre-dawn | Midday | Diurnal range | |||
Aug 2001 | Forest | (8) | −1.46 ± 0.21 | −4.44 ± 0.25 | 2.98 ± 0.31 |
Shrubs | (6) | −2.25 ± 0.17 | −4.42 ± 0.31 | 2.17 ± 0.27 | |
Swamp | (6) | −1.10 ± 0.03 | −3.70 ± 0.40 | 2.60 ± 0.38 | |
Jun 2002 | Forest | (9) | −4.28 ± 0.38 | −4.82 ± 0.38 | 0.54 ± 0.25 |
Shrubs | (8) | −3.46 ± 0.49 | −5.23 ± 0.48 | 1.76 ± 0.72 | |
Swamp | (7) | −2.99 ± 0.73 | −4.14 ± 0.45 | 1.16 ± 0.57 | |
Nov 2002 | Forest | (8) | −2.66 ± 0.25 | −3.46 ± 0.33 | 0.80 ± 0.38 |
Shrubs | (6) | −3.05 ± 0.32 | −3.47 ± 0.33 | 0.36 ± 0.29 | |
Swamp | (6) | −2.63 ± 0.21 | −3.15 ± 0.23 | 0.52 ± 0.29 | |