Journal article
Long-term monitoring reveals differing impacts of elephants on elements of a canopy shrub community
Ecological Applications, Vol.24(8), pp.2002-2012
2014
Abstract
The conservation management of southern Africa's elephants focuses on identifying and mitigating the extent and intensity of impacts on biological diversity. However, variation in the intensity of elephant effects between elements of biodiversity is seldom explored, which limits our ability to interpret the scale of the impacts. Our study quantifies >50 years of impacts in the succulent thickets of the Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa, contrasting hypotheses for the resilience of the canopy shrubs (a key functional guild) to elephants with those that argue the opposite. We also assess the impacts between elements of the community, ranging from community composition and structure to the structure of individual canopy species. We show the vulnerability of the canopy shrubs to transformation as the accumulated influences of elephants alter community composition and structure. The pattern of transformation is similar to that caused by domestic herbivores, which leads us to predict that elephants will eventually bring about landscape-level degradation and a significant loss of biodiversity. While we expected the canopy species to show similar declining trends in structure, providing insight into the response of the community as a whole, we demonstrate an uneven distribution of impacts between constituent elements; most of the canopy dominants exhibited little change, resisting removal. This implies that these canopy dominants might not be useful indicators of community change in thickets, a pattern that is likely repeated among the canopy trees of savanna systems. Our findings suggest that predicting elephant impacts, and finding solutions to the so-called "elephant problem," require a broader and more integrated understanding of the mechanisms driving the changes between elements of biodiversity at various spatial and temporal scales.
Details
- Title
- Long-term monitoring reveals differing impacts of elephants on elements of a canopy shrub community
- Authors
- Marietjie Landman (Author) - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South AfricaDavid S Schoeman (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringAnthony J Hall-Martin (Author) - Hall-Martin Consulting CC, South AfricaGraham I H Kerley (Author) - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa
- Publication details
- Ecological Applications, Vol.24(8), pp.2002-2012
- Publisher
- Ecological Society of America
- Date published
- 2014
- DOI
- 10.1890/14-0080.1
- ISSN
- 1051-0761
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2014 Ecological Society of America. Reproduced here in accordance with the publisher's copyright policy.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449038902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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