Skarpe / du Toit / Moe Elephants and Savanna Woodland Ecosystems

A Study from Chobe National Park, Botswana
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-118-85858-5
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 328 Seiten, E-Book

Reihe: Conservation Science and Practice

During the nineteenth century, ivory hunting caused asubstantial decrease of elephant numbers in southern Africa. Soonafter that, populations of many other large and medium-sizedherbivores went into steep decline due to the rinderpest pandemicin the 1890s. These two events provided an opportunity for woodlandestablishment in areas previously intensively utilized by elephantsand other herbivores. The return of elephants to currentlyprotected areas of their former range has greatly influencedvegetation locally and the resulting potential negative effects onbiodiversity are causing concern among stakeholders, managers, andscientists.
This book focuses on the ecological effects of the increasingelephant population in northern Botswana, presenting the importanceof the elephants for the heterogeneity of the system, and showingthat elephant ecology involves much wider spatiotemporal scalesthan was previously thought. Drawing on the results of theirresearch, the authors discuss elephant-caused effects on vegetationin nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor savannas, and the potentialcompetition between elephants on the one hand and browsers andmixed feeders on the other.
Ultimately this text provides a comprehensive review ofecological processes in African savannas, covering long-termecosystem changes and human-wildlife conflicts. It summarises newknowledge on the ecology of the sub-humid African savannaecosystems to advance the general functional understanding ofsavanna ecosystems across moisture and nutrient gradients.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Skarpe, Christina

du Toit, Johan T.

Moe, Stein R.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Contributors xi
Foreword xiii
Norman Owen-Smith
Preface xvii
Part I The Chobe Ecosystems 1
1. Introduction 3
Christina Skarpe and Stein R. Moe
2. The Chobe Environment 7
Christina Skarpe and Susan Ringrose
3. Elephant-Mediated Ecosystem Processes in Kalahari-SandWoodlands 30
Johan T. du Toit, Stein R. Moe and Christina Skarpe
Part II The Substrate 41
4. Historical Changes of Vegetation in the Chobe Area 43
Christina Skarpe, Håkan Hytteborn, Stein R. Moe and Per Arild Aarrestad
5. Vegetation: Between Soils and Herbivores 61
Per Arild Aarrestad, Håkan Hytteborn, Gaseitsiwe Masunga and Christina Skarpe
Part III The Agent 89
6. Guns, Ivory and Disease: Past Influences on the Present Status of Botswana's Elephants and their Habitats 91
Mark. E. Vandewalle and Kathy. A. Alexander
7. The Chobe Elephants: One Species, Two Niches 104
Sigbjørn Stokke and Johan T. du Toit
8. Surface Water and Elephant Ecology: Lessons from a Waterhole-Driven Ecosystem, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe 118
Simon Chamaillé-Jammes, Marion Valeix, Hillary Madzikanda and Hervé Fritz
Part IV Controllers 133
9. Soil as Controller of and Responder to Elephant Activity 135
Christina Skarpe, Gaseitsiwe Masunga, Per Arild Aarrestad and Peter G.H. Frost
10. Impala as Controllers of Elephant-Driven Change within a Savanna Ecosystem 154
Stein R. Moe, Lucas Rutina, HåkanHytteborn and Johan T. du Toit
11. Buffalo and Elephants: Competition and Facilitation in the Dry Season on the Chobe Floodplain 172
Duncan J. Halley, Cyril Taolo and Stein R. Moe
Part V Responders 187
12. Plant-Herbivore Interactions 189
Christina Skarpe, Roger Bergström, Shimane Makhabu, Tuulikki Rooke, Håkan Hytteborn and Kjell Danell
13. Elephants and the Grazing and Browsing Guilds 207
Christina Skarpe, Stein R. Moe, MärthaWallgren and Sigbjørn Stokke
14. Cascading Effects on Smaller Mammals and Gallinaceous Birds of Elephant Impacts on Vegetation Structure 229
Sigbjørn Stokke, Sekgowa S. Motsumi,Thato B. Sejoe and Jon E. Swenson
15. The Chobe Riverfront Lion Population: A Large Predator as Responder to Elephant-Induced Habitat Heterogeneity 251
Harry P. Andreassen, Gosiame Neo-Mahupeleng, Øystein Flagstad and PerWegge
Part VI Elephants in Social-Ecological Systems 269
16. Human Dimensions of Elephant Ecology 271
Eivin Røskaft, Thor Larsen, Rapelang Mojaphoko, A. H. M. Raihan Sarker and Craig Jackson
17. Elephants and Heterogeneity in Savanna Landscapes 289
Johan T. du Toit, Christina Skarpe and Stein R. Moe
Index 299

Über Autor(innen)

Christina Skarpe is a Professor in Applied Ecology at theFaculty of Applied Ecology and Agricultural Sciences at HedmarkUniversity College, Norway. Her main research interest is largeherbivores and African savanna ecology. From Uppsala University,Sweden, Botswana Ministry of Agriculture and later from NorwegianInstitute of Nature Research and Hedmark University College sheconcentrated on herbivores- and worked on diverse projects inAfrica, Scandinavia, China and Central America.
Johan du Toit is Professor of Ecology and Conservation ofLarge Mammals in the Wildland Resources Department at Utah StateUniversity, USA. He has almost 30 years' experienceconducting ecological research in African savanna ecosystems. Atthe University of Zimbabwe he coordinated the Tropical ResourceEcology Programme, after which he was the Austin Roberts Professorof Mammalogy and Director of the Mammal Research Institute at theUniversity of Pretoria. His research focus is the ecology andconservation of large mammals in terrestrial ecosystems.
Stein R. Moe is a Professor of Ecology at the NorwegianUniversity of Life Sciences, Norway. Although his scientific worksspan over four continents, his main focus has been on Africansavanna ecology. He is currently coordinating a Master'sprogram in tropical ecology and natural resource management in theDepartment of Ecology and Natural Resource Management. Followingseveral years as a departmental board member, he is now a member ofthe faculty board at the University.