The effects of elephant and mesoherbivores on woody vegetation.

Abstract

Herbivores are important drivers and have a longstanding history in shaping our terrestrial environments. However, during the past decades, changes in woody vegetation in savanna and forest systems have been observed in southern Africa. Subsequently, concerns have been raised about the loss of (tall) trees in areas with elephant. The relative effects of browsing herbivores on vegetation and the potential browsing interaction with other herbivore species remain unclear and were examined using vegetation transects and exclosure experiments in savanna woodland and Sand Forest. Rainfall, fire and elephant were important savanna determinants. Especially rainfall positively affected woody densities, which were negatively affected by a longer exposure time to elephant, but not to elephant densities itself. In general, within South Africa’s savannas, tree height classes were absent from the population demography. Different height classes were likely to be impacted by different drivers. For example, seedling and sapling densities were greater with longer fire return periods and increased rainfall. The Sand Forest exclosure experiments showed that forest regeneration was impacted by nyala and both elephant and nyala, as the absence of both species increased tree densities. Both species combined, and individually, also affected tree species assemblages. In contrast, short term elephant access to a savanna area did not affect tree densities or species assemblages. In both savanna and Sand Forest elephant displaced mesoherbivores, and in Sand Forest both elephant and mesoherbivores displaced their smaller counterparts. The presence of competitive displacement also affected recruitment (i.e. seedlings and/or saplings) of woody vegetation both in Sand Forest and savanna. Thus, elephant and mesoherbivores exert direct and indirect (i.e. competitive displacement providing a window for recruitment) impact on vegetation. Active management of the herbivore species assemblage affects both vegetation and other herbivores, which effects potentially cascade into lower trophic levels, jeopardising biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Therefore, the full herbivore assemblage present and their combined and individual browsing effects need to be considered when setting management goals to conserve habitats and biodiversity across all trophic levels. In addition some contrasting results between Sand Forest and savanna emphasise the need for caution when extrapolating results from different areas and ecosystems.