Title

Elephant-mediated ecosystem processes in Kalahari-sand woodlands

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Elephants and Savanna Woodland Ecosystems: A Study from Chobe National Park, Botswana

Editor

C. Skarpe, J.T. du Toit, S.R. Moe

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell and the Zoological Society of London, Chichester, UK

Publication Date

1-1-2014

First Page

30

Last Page

39

Abstract

Depending on location and context, the African elephant Loxodonta africana has been classified as either a keystone species or an ecosystem engineer, sometimes both. These classifications arise from the abilities of elephants to break, fell and uproot trees in the course of their feeding activities, with the result that, in combination either with fire or with other browsing mammals, they can transform the structure and function of savanna ecosystems. This chapter explores the functional significance of elephants in the Kalahari-sand woodlands, woodlands that occur on a template of aeolian sands and parallel dune-trough topography. Whereas large herbivore biomass density increases with rainfall across African savannas, the composition of that biomass changes, with elephants dominating in savannas with higher rainfall, lower soil nutrient availability, or both. Elephants therefore have a competitive advantage in dystrophic wooded savannas where they have exclusive use of a major fraction of the primary productivity.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS