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Article Dans Une Revue SAAB Annual Meeting Année : 2009

The megafaunal ‘browse trap' and savanna vegetation structure

G.R. Moncrieff
  • Fonction : Auteur
W.J. Bond
  • Fonction : Auteur
E.C. February
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

Despite elephant browsing and plant utilization being acknowledged as highly influential in savanna vegetation dynamics the cumulative impact of browser fauna on ecosystem structure is not well understood. A browser of particular interest is the giraffe (Giraffa cameloparadalis). Their large body size and the fact that they are almost exclusively browsers ranging over large areas, suggests that they ought to have a strong and ubiquitous effect on the growth and demography of woody plants. At a height of around 2-3 m, plants escape the ‘fire trap'. At this same height, plants grow beyond the reach of many browsers (kudu, steenbok, impala) and into the range preferably browsed by giraffe. If depression of plant growth within foraging height is strong enough it may result in a demographic bottleneck concentrating woody plants that have escaped fire into these height classes. Using heightdiameter allometries measured in the presence and absence of giraffe and elephant to translate modelled stem diameter growth of individual trees into vertical structure we hope to gain and understanding of, and quantify, browser impacts on savanna structure and investigate the possibility of a megafaunal ‘browse trap'.

Dates et versions

hal-00527117 , version 1 (18-10-2010)

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Citer

G.R. Moncrieff, W.J. Bond, E.C. February, Simon Chamaillé-Jammes. The megafaunal ‘browse trap' and savanna vegetation structure. SAAB Annual Meeting, 2009, pp.412. ⟨10.1016/j.sajb.2009.02.082⟩. ⟨hal-00527117⟩

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