Colophospermum mopane is the dominant tree or shrub within mopane woodland in the subtropical areas of southern Africa’s savanna ecosystems. This article provided a review on the adaptation capabilities of mopane against fire, browsing activity and environmental stresses. It further reviewed and tested the extent to which rainfall, temperature, altitude and soil types had an effect on the distribution of mopane in southern Africa. Mopane is adapted to survive moisture stresses, low nutrient environments and even disturbances caused by fire and browsing by large herbivores through its physical, physiological and chemical responses. Adaptation of mopane to various stresses enables it to dominate the low-lying areas of southern Africa’s savannas. The distribution of mopane is best associated with low to moderate rainfall (R2 = 0.38), high temperature (R2 = 0.42), low altitudes (R2 = 0.44) and a variety of soil types. An increase in the annual rainfall ( 800 mm) and altitude ( 800 m.a.s.l.), coupled with a reduction in the minimum temperature and acidic soil, limits the distribution of mopane. Mopane in South Africa occurs under similar environmental conditions to those in Zimbabwe and Zambia, but quite different from those in Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi and Botswana where mopane occurs.

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies aims to engage, inform, and catalyse scholarly discourse within research and real-world practices that work towards the minimisation of vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout developing communities with special emphasis on Africa.

Soil respiration, which is a combination of root respiration and microbial respiration, represents one of the main carbon fluxes in savannas. However, it is remarkable how little is known about these components – regarding either process-level mechanisms or quantitative estimates, especially in savanna ecosystems. Given the extensive area of savannas worldwide, this limits our ability to understand and predict the critical changes in the global carbon budget that underlie the phenomenon of global climate change. From May 2000 to April 2001, bi-weekly soil respiration measurements from two savanna types were made in 14 sampling collars (diameter = 100 mm), using a PP Systems EGM-2 respirometer. Results indicated that there was a difference in the rate of respiration between the more clayey Acacia and sandier Combretum savanna soils (p = 0.028). The mean (± s.d.) soil respiration in the Acacia savanna was 0.540 g/m2/h ± 0.419 g/m2/h, whilst it was 0.484 g/m2/h ± 0.383 g/m2/h in the Combretum savanna. We also found that soil respiration was sensitive to soil moisture and soil temperature. The rate of soil respiration at both sites rose to a maximum when soil temperature was at 28 °C and declined at higher temperatures, despite different temperature sensitivities. Soil respiration increased approximately linearly with an increase of soil moisture. In both savanna sites soil is subject to a combination of high temperature and water stress, which controls the fluxes of soil carbon dioxide. We found that the two sites differed significantly in their soil moisture characteristics (p < 0.0001) but not with regard to temperature (p = 0.141), which implies that soil moisture is the main factor responsible for the differences in respiration between Acacia and Combretum savannas.Conservation implications: It is argued for many protected areas that they perform a climate change buffering function. Knowing the soil respiration rate and determining its controlling factors contribute to improved understanding of whether protected areas will be net sources or sinks of carbon in the future.