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Figure S4 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure S4. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based on Gower distance measure indicating annual forb plant functional types (PFTs).

Figure S5 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure S5. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based on Gower distance measure indicating perennial forb plant functional types (PFTs).

Figure S3 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure S3. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based on Gower distance measure indicating perennial grass plant functional types (PFTs).

Figure S1 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure S1. Principal Co-ordinate Analysis (PCoA) scatter diagram of the species-trait matrix revealing a strong clustering based on life history.

Figure 3 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure 3. Herbaceous species (left) and trait (right) diversity measures benchmarked against the mean value calculated for the untransformed (protected) area (----) across transformed land-use types. Vertical bars denote 0.95 confidence intervals. Significant deviations from the protected area (Sidak posthoc pairwise comparison; p<0.05) are denoted by (*).

Figure S2 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure S2. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based on Gower distance measure indicating annual grass plant functional types (PFTs).

Figure 4 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure 4. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) ordination of land-use type sampling plots correlated with plant functional types (PFT's). CAF (Communal abandoned fields); CR (Communal rangelands); NRSM (Naturally restored strip mine); RASM (Recently active strip mine); UMV (Untransformed Mopaneveld).

Figure 2 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure 2. Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) ordination of sampling plots representing herbaceous species assemblages across land-use types. Broad groupings are encircled.

Figure 1 in Effects of land-use change on herbaceous vegetation in a semi-arid Mopaneveld savanna

Figure 1. Study area and locality of sampled sites. Strip mines and untransformed Mopaneveld is located at Pompeye (top) and communal areas at Lulekani (bottom).

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

zenodo36/100

Factors influencing space-use and kill distribution of sympatric lion prides in a semi-arid savanna landscape

In this study, Global Positioning System collar data and logistic regression were used to investigate space-use and kill distribution among three lion prides at Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Zimbabwe. The R statistical platform was used to perform logistic regression analysis to determine the effects of the environmental variables on the outcome of each pride's ranging behaviour. Presence/Kill probability (presence or absence) was used as a response variable while distance to water, shrub canopy volume, soil depth and clay content were treated as fixed effects.

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Data: Drought and fire determine juvenile and adult woody diversity and dominance in a semi-arid African savanna

Aim: To understand how communities of adult and juvenile (seedlings and saplings) woody plants were impacted by fire and the 2014 – 2016 El Niño drought in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Methods: We used a landscape scale fire experiment spanning 2013-2019 in a semi-arid savanna in the central west of Kruger National Park (mean annual precipitation, 543 mm). Adult and juvenile woody species composition were recorded during and after the drought in 40 plots that experienced a mix of no fire, moderate fire and frequent fire treatments. Using multivariate modelling, we related community composition in juvenile and adult woody plants to year of sampling and the experimental fire treatments. Results: Post-drought, there was significant adult woody plant top-kill, especially in dominant species Dichrostachys cinerea (81% reduction in abundance), Acacia nigrescens (30%), and Combretum apiculatum (19%), but no significant change in adult species richness. Two years post-drought, abundance of all juveniles decreased by 35%, and species richness increased in juveniles in both the frequent fire (7%) and no fire treatments (32%). Conclusion: Counter-intuitively, the El Niño drought increased species richness of the woody plant community due to the recruitment of new species as juveniles, a potential lasting impact on diversity, and where different fire regimes were associated with differences in community composition. Drought events in semi-arid savannas could drive temporal dynamics in species richness and composition in previously unrecognised ways.

zenodo36/100

Near real-time ultrahigh-resolution imaging from unmanned aerial vehicles for sustainable land use management and biodiversity conservation in semi-arid savanna under regional and global change (SAVMAP)

To prevent aggravation of existing poverty in semi-arid savannas, a comprehensive concept for the sustainable adaptive management and use of these ecosystems under unprecedented conditions is needed. SAVMAP is an innovative, trans-, and inter-disciplinary initiative whose goal is to develop a valuable monitoring tool for both sustainable land-use management and rare species conservation (black rhinoceros) in semi-arid savanna in Namibia. SAVMAP uses near real-time ultrahigh-resolution photographic imaging (NURI) facilitated by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed at EPFL.

openafl-3.0Dec 2014View details →

zenodo36/100

Woody cover and geology as stabilising forces in semi-arid savannas

Data accompanying the paper: L.M. Vermeulen, B. Verbist, K. Van Meerbeek, J. Slingsby, P.N. Bernardino, B. Somers. 2024. Woody cover and geology as stabilising forces in semi-arid savannas.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2024View details →

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

Resistance of termite mounds to variation in long-term fire regimes across semi-arid African savannas

1. Fire regimes are expected to change with climate change, resulting in a crucial need to understand the specific ways in which variable fire regimes impact important contributors to ecosystem functioning, such as mound-building termites. Termite mounds and fire are both important agents of savanna ecosystem heterogeneity and functioning, but there is little understanding of how they interact across savanna types. 2. We used very high-resolution LiDAR remote sensing to measure the size, density, and distribution of termite mounds across approximately 1,300 ha of experimental burn plots in four South African savanna landscapes representing a wide range of fire treatments differing in seasonality and frequency of burning. 3. In nutrient-poor granitic savannas, fire had no impact on termite mound size, densities, and spatial distributions. In nutrient-rich basaltic savannas with high mammalian herbivore abundance and intermediate rainfall, very frequent fires caused a decrease in termite mound size, whereas in arid nutrient-rich basaltic savannas, fires that occurred at intermediate frequencies and in transitional seasons (i.e., late dry season and late wet season) decreased the degree of spatial overdispersal exhibited by mounds. 4. Overall, our results suggest that termite mounds are resistant to variation in fire seasonality and frequency, likely indicating that ecosystem services provided by mound-building termites will be unaffected by changing fire regimes. However, consideration of changes to termite mound size and distribution could be necessary for land managers in specific savanna types, such as nutrient-rich soils with high mammalian herbivore abundance.

opencc-zeroFeb 2023View details →

Data for: Steal the rain: Interception loses and rainfall partitioning by a broad-leaf and a fine-leaf woody encroaching species in a southern African semi-arid savanna

Woody plant encroachment (WPE) has been found to alter ecosystem functioning and services in savannas. In rain-limited savannas, increasing woody cover can reduce streamflow and groundwater by altering evapotranspiration rates and rainfall partitioning, but the ecological relevance of this impact is not well known. This study quantified the altered partitioning of rainfall by two woody plant structural types (fine- and broad-leaved trees) across a gradient of encroachment in a semi-arid savanna in South Africa. Averaged across both plant functional types, loss of rainfall through canopy interception and subsequent evaporation roughly doubled (from 20.5 to 43.6% of total rainfall) with a roughly 13-fold increase in woody cover (from 2.4 to 31.4 m2/ha tree basal cover). Spatial partitioning changes comprised fourfold increases in stemflow (from 0.8 to 3.9% of total rainfall) and a decline in throughfall proportion of about two-fifths (from 80.2% to 47.3% of total rainfall). Changes in partitioning were dependent on plant functional type; rainfall interception by the fine-leaved multi-stemmed shrub Dichrostachys cinerea was almost double that of the broad-leaved tree Terminalia sericea at the highest levels of woody encroachment (i.e., 49.7% vs 29.1% of total rainfall intercepted at tree basal area of 31.4 m2/ha). Partitioning was also dependent on rainfall characteristics, with the proportion of rainfall intercepted inversely related to rainfall event size and intensity. Therefore, increasing tree cover in African grassy ecosystems reduces the amount of canopy throughfall, especially beneath canopies of fine-leaved species in smaller rainfall events. Rainfall interception traits may thus confer a selective advantage, especially for fine-leaved woody plant species in semi-arid savannas.