Termites and trees. Response to comment on ‘Termite mounds alter the spatial distribution of African savanna tree species'

Abstract:

In a recent correspondence article, Sileshi (2016) argues that several errors were made in our recent analysis of tree species distributions in relation to termite mounds in two African savanna sites (Davies et al., 2016). Specifically, he suggests that we used inappropriate analytical techniques and that our conclusions are not supported by the data, proposing alternative analyses. However, we show here that these criticisms are either erroneous or perhaps stem from misunderstandings of our work that are easily explained. Moreover, when Sileshi performs the suggested alternative analyses, our original conclusions are still supported. Below we present our response to each of Sileshi's critiques. We also explain why the statistical analyses performed are appropriate to the questions we sought to address and how our original conclusions are supported by the data.