Rangeland Ecology & Management

Get reliable science

RANGELAND BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA LACKS ATTENTION TO SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES OF DISTURBANCE
Author
Mcgranahan, Devan A.
Kirkman, Kevin P.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2015
Body

Sub-Saharan Africa has extraordinary biological diversity across a breadth of rangeland habitats. As ecological disturbances, fire and grazing contributed to the evolution of many African rangelands, but current regimes are shaped by human impact and global environmental change. While considerable research documents the negative effects of altered disturbance regimes and land-use change on Africa's biodiversity, relatively little work describes how fire and grazing might be managed such that biodiversity conservation and human land-use can be reconciled. We review existing literature on fire and grazing impacts on non-game wildlife in Sub-Saharan Africa, including invertebrates, herptofauna, small mammals, and birds. Specifically, we focus on the paucity of research attention to spatial and temporal scale of disturbance. We suggest considerations for future work on biodiversity in Sub-Saharan grasslands and savannas, including 1) quantification of fire and grazing as regimes comprised of intensity and frequency, rather than qualitative categories of occurrence; 2) community-level sampling and analysis; 3) consideration of the spatial and temporal patterns of fire and grazing, with particular attention to heterogeneity and patch contrast; and 4) consideration of the interactive effects of fire and grazing, particularly at patch- and landscape-level effects on wildlife communities and habitat structure.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Sacramento, CA