Skarpe Christina, du Toit J.T., Moe S.R. (eds.) Elephants and Savanna Woodland Ecosystems: A Study from Chobe National Park, Botswana

Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. — 323 p. — (Conservation Science and Practice Series). — ISBN: 978-0-470-67176-4.During the nineteenth century, ivory hunting caused a substantial decrease in elephant numbers in southern Africa. Soon after that, populations of many other large and medium-sized herbivores went into steep decline due to the rinderpest pandemic in the 1890s. These two events provided an opportunity for woodland establishment in areas previously intensively utilized by elephants and other herbivores. The return of elephants to currently protected areas of their former range has greatly influenced vegetation locally and the resulting potential negative effects on biodiversity are causing concern among stakeholders, managers, and scientists. This book focuses on the ecological effects of the increasing elephant population in northern Botswana, presenting the importance of the elephants for the heterogeneity of the system, and showing that elephant ecology involves much wider spatiotemporal scales than was previously thought. Drawing on the results of their research, the authors discuss elephant-caused effects on vegetation in nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor savannas and the potential competition between elephants on the one hand and browsers and mixed feeders on the other. Ultimately this text provides a comprehensive review of ecological processes in African savannas, covering long-term ecosystem changes and human-wildlife conflicts. It summarizes new knowledge on the ecology of the sub-humid African savanna ecosystems to advance the general functional understanding of savanna ecosystems across moisture and nutrient gradients.The Chobe EcosystemsThe Chobe Environment.
Elephant-Mediated Ecosystem Processes in Kalahari-SandWoodlands.
The Substrate
Historical Changes of Vegetation in the Chobe Area.
Vegetation: Between Soils and Herbivores.
The Agent
Guns, Ivory and Disease: Past Influences on the Present Status of Botswana’s Elephants and their Habitats.
The Chobe Elephants: One Species, Two Niches.
Surface Water and Elephant Ecology: Lessons from a Waterhole-Driven Ecosystem, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.
Controllers
Soil as Controller of and Responder to Elephant Activity.
Impala as Controllers of Elephant-Driven Change within a Savanna Ecosystem.
Buffalo and Elephants: Competition and Facilitation in the Dry Season on the Chobe Floodplain.
Responders
Plant – Herbivore Interactions.
Elephants and the Grazing and Browsing Guilds.
Cascading Effects on Smaller Mammals and Gallinaceous Birds of Elephant Impacts on Vegetation Structure.
The Chobe Riverfront Lion Population: A Large Predator as Responder to Elephant-Induced Habitat Heterogeneity.
Elephants in Social-Ecological Systems
Human Dimensions of Elephant Ecology.
Elephants and Heterogeneity in Savanna Landscapes.