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The landscape-scale drivers of herbivore assemblage distribution on the central basalt plains of Kruger National Park

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2019

Cyanne Young ,
Hervé Fritz ,
Erica A.H. Smithwick  and
Jan A. Venter Open the ORCID record for Jan A. Venter [Opens in a new window]
Cyanne Young
Affiliation:
School of Natural Resource Management, George Campus, Nelson Mandela University, Western Cape, South Africa
Hervé Fritz
Affiliation:
REHABS International Research Laboratory, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Nelson Mandela University, George Campus, George, South Africa
Erica A.H. Smithwick
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Jan A. Venter*
Affiliation:
School of Natural Resource Management, George Campus, Nelson Mandela University, Western Cape, South Africa REHABS International Research Laboratory, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Nelson Mandela University, George Campus, George, South Africa Eugène Marais Chair of Wildlife Management, Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
*
Author for correspondence:*Jan A. Venter, Email: Jan. Venter@mandela.ac.za
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Abstract

The distribution and abundance of herbivores in African savannas are constrained by interactions between abiotic and biotic factors. At the species-level, herbivores face trade-offs among foraging requirements, vegetation structure and the availability of surface water that change over spatial and temporal scales. Characterizing herbivore requirements is necessary for the management of the environment in which they occur, as conservation management interventions such as fencing and artificial water provision consequently have effects on how herbivores address these trade-offs. We tested the effects of environmental attributes on the probability of presence of herbivore functional types at different distances to water in the Satara section of Kruger National Park over the period of a year. Hypotheses about species’ relative distribution and abundance were developed through a literature review of forage and water availability constraints on feeding preference and body size of herbivore. We expected strong seasonal relationships between vegetation biomass and quality, and biomass of water-dependent herbivores with increasing distance to water. Our analyses of herbivore distribution across the region confirmed broad-scale descriptions of interactions between forage requirements and water availability across a set of species which differ in functional traits.

Keywords

African elephantAfrican buffaloblue wildebeestextrinsic driversforage biomassherbivore distributionintrinsic traitsplains zebrawater availabilitywhite rhino
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 13 - 28
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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