Integrating herbivore assemblages and woody plant cover in an African savanna to reveal how herbivores respond to ecosystem management.

ABSTRACT: African savannas are experiencing anthropogenically-induced stressors that are accelerating the increase of woody vegetation cover. To combat this, land managers frequently implement large-scale clearing of trees, which can have a cascading influence on mammalian herbivores. Studies rarely focus on how differences in woody cover influence the herbivore assemblage, making it difficult to assess how aggressive measures, or the lack of management, to counteract increasing woody cover affect the local composition and biodiversity of herbivores. We address this knowledge gap by applying a model-based clustering approach to field observations from MalaMala Game Reserve, South Africa to identify multiple herbivore-vegetation 'configurations,' defined as unique sets of herbivore assemblages (i.e.,

SUBMITTER: Schmitt MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9432757 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature