The spatial distribution of vegetation types in the Serengeti ecosystem: The influence of rainfall and topographic relief on vegetation patch characteristics

Journal of Biogeography

Volumn 36, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 770-782

  Reed, D N ^a   Anderson, T M ^b   Dempewolf, J ^c   Metzger, K ^d   Serneels, S ^e  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN   (Netherlands)

^c UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

^d UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

^e UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN   (Belgium)

Author keywords

African savanna; Fragstats; Fuzzy classification; Fuzzy convolution; Physiognomic vegetation map; SEM; Vegetation heterogeneity

Indexed keywords

FUZZY MATHEMATICS; GRASSLAND; LAND COVER; LANDSCAPE; NUMERICAL MODEL; RAINFALL; SATELLITE IMAGERY; SAVANNA; SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; SHRUBLAND; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; VEGETATION MAPPING; WOODLAND;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; KENYA; MASAI MARA; RIFT VALLEY; SERENGETI; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; TANZANIA;

EID: 62149126219     PISSN: 03050270     EISSN: 13652699     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.02017.x     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. Anderson, T.M., McNaughton, S.J. Ritchie, M. (2004) Scale-dependent relationships between the spatial distribution of a limited resource and plant species diversity in an African grassland. Oecologia, 139, 227 287.
2. Anderson, T.M., Metzger, K.L. McNaughton, S.J. (2007) Multi-scale analysis of plant species richness in Serengeti grasslands. Journal of Biogeography, 34, 313 323.
3. Anderson, T.M., Dempewolf, J., Metzger, K.L., Reed, D.N. Serneels, S. (2008) Generation and maintenance of heterogeneity in the Serengeti ecosystem. Serengeti III: human impacts on ecosystem dynamics (ed. by A.R.E. Sinclair, C. Packer, S.A.R. Mduma J.M. Fryxell pp. 135 182. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
4. Arbuckle, J.L. (2007) Amos 16.0 users guide. Amos Development Corporation, Spring House, PA.
5. Bamford, M.K., Stanistreet, I.G., Stollhofen, C.H. Albert, R.M. (2008) Late Pliocene grasslands from Olduvai Gorge. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 257, 280 293.
6. Belsky, A.J. (1990) Tree/grass ratios in East African savannas: a comparison of existing models. Journal of Biogeography, 17, 483 489.
7. Belsky, A.J. (1995) Spatial and temporal landscape patterns in arid and semi-arid African savannas. Mosaic landscapes and ecological processes (ed. by L. Hansson, L. Fahrig G. Merriam pp. 31 56. Chapman & Hall, New York.
8. Beven, K. Kirkby, M. (1979) A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology. Hydrological Sciences Bulletin, 24, 43 69.
9. Burnett, M., August, P.V., Brown, J.H. Killingbeck, K.T. (1998) The influence of geomorphological heterogeneity on biodiversity I. A patch-scale perspective. Conservation Biology, 12, 363 370.
10. Chiu, G., Lockhart, R. Routledge, R. (2006) Bent-cable regression theory and applications. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 101, 542 553.
11. Cole, M. (1986) The savannas, biogeography and geobotany. Academic Press, London.
12. Coughenour, M.B. (2006) PPTMAP software. Fort Collins, CO.
13. Coughenour, M.B. Ellis, J.E. (1993) Landscape and climatic control of woody vegetation in a dry tropical ecosystem: Turkana District, Kenya. Journal of Biogeography, 20, 383 398.
14. Dawson, J.B. (1964) Carbonatitic volcanic ashes in northern Tanganyika. Bulletin of Volcanology, 27, 81 91.
15. Dempewolf, J., Trigg, S., DeFries, R.S. Eby, S. (2007) Burned-area mapping of the Serengeti-Mara region using MODIS reflectance data. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 4, 312 316.
16. Field, R., O'Brien, E.M. Whittaker, R.J. (2005) Global models for predicting woody plant richness from climate: development and evaluation. Ecology, 86, 2263 2277.
17. Fryxell, J.M., Wilmshurst, J.F., Sinclair, A.R.E., Haydon, D.T., Holt, R.D. Abrams, P.A. (2005) Landscape scale, heterogeneity, and the viability of Serengeti grazers. Ecology Letters, 8, 328 335.
18. Gereta, E., Mwangomo, E. Wolanski, E. (2004) The influence of wetlands in regulating water quality in the Seronera River, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Wetland Ecology and Management, 12, 301 307.
19. Gerresheim, K. (1971) Serengeti ecosystem landscape classification units. Tanzania Litho Ltd, Arusha.
20. Grace, J.B. (2006) Structural equation modeling and natural systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
21. Grace, J.B. Bollen, K.A. (2008) Representing general theoretical concepts in structural equation models: the role of composite variables. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 15, 191 213.
22. Grunblatt, J., Ottichilo, W.K. Sinange, R.K. (1989) A hierarchical approach to vegetation classification in Kenya. African Journal of Ecology, 27, 45 51.
23. Hay, R.L. (1976) The geology of the Olduvai Gorge. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
24. Herlocker, D. (1974) Map of the woody vegetation of the Serengeti National Park. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
25. Herlocker, D.J., Dirschl, H.J. Frame, G. (1993) Grasslands of East Africa. Natural grasslands - eastern hemisphere and résumé (ed. by R.T. Coupland pp. 221 264. Elsevier, New York.
26. Hopcraft, J.G.C., Sinclair, A.R.E. Packer, C. (2005) Planning for success: Serengeti lions seek prey accessibility rather than abundance. Journal of Animal Ecology, 74, 559 566.
27. House, J.I., Archer, S., Breshears, D.D. Scholes, R.J. (2003) Conundrums in mixed woody-herbaceous plant systems. Journal of Biogeography, 30, 1763 1777.
28. Irish, R.R. (2001) Landsat 7 Science Data User's Handbook, Report 430-15-01-003-0. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, http://landsathandbook.gsfc.nasa.gov/handbook. handbook-toc.html.
29. Jager, T.J. (1982) Soils of the Serengeti woodlands, Tanzania. Agricultural University, Wageningen.
30. Jensen, J.R. (1996) Introductory digital image processing: a remote sensing perspective. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
31. Koenker, R. (2008) Quantreg: quantile regression. R package version 4.17.
32. Kolasa, J. Waltho, N. (1998) A hierarchical view of habitat and its relationship to species abundance. Ecological scale (ed. by D.L. Peterson V.T. Parker pp. 55 76. Columbia University Press, New York.
33. Lamprey, R.H. Reid, R.S. (2004) Expansion of human settlement in Kenya's Masai Mara: what future for pastoralism and wildlife? Journal of Biogeography, 31, 997 1032.
34. Lehner, B., Verdin, K. Jarvis, A. (2006) Hydrological data and maps based on Shuttle elevation derivatives at multiple scales (HydroSHEDS) - Technical Documentation. World Wildlife Fund US, Washington, DC.
35. Leica (2006) ERDAS field guide. Leica Geosystems, Atlanta, GA.
36. Lillesand, T.M., Kiefer, R.W. Chipman, J.W. (2008) Remote sensing and image interpretation. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
37. Mackey, B.G. (1994) Predicting the spatial distribution of rainforest structural characteristics. Journal of Vegetation Science, 5, 43 54.
38. McGarigal, K.S., Cushman, S.A., Neel, M.C. Ene, E. (2002) FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern analysis program for categorical maps. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
39. McNaughton, S.J., Banyikwa, F.F. McNaughton, M.M. (1997) Promotion of the cycling of diet-enhancing nutrients by African grazers. Science, 278, 1798 1800.
40. Nichols, W.F., Killingbeck, K.T. August, P.V. (1998) The influence of geomorphological heterogeneity on biodiversity II. A landscape perspective. Conservation Biology, 12, 371 379.
41. Norton-Griffiths, M. (1975) The patterns of rainfall in the Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania. East African Wildlife Journal, 13, 347 374.
42. O'Brien, E.M., Field, R. Whittaker, R.J. (2000) Climatic gradients in woody plant (tree and shrub) diversity: water-energy dynamics, residual variation, and topography. Oikos, 89, 588 600.
43. O'Neill, R.V., Milne, B.T., Turner, M.G. Gardner, R.H. (1988) Resource utilisation scales and landscape pattern. Landscape Ecology, 2, 63 69.
44. Packer, C., Ikanda, D., Kissui, B. Kushnir, H. (2005) Conservation biology: Lion attacks on humans in Tanzania. Nature, 436, 927 928.
45. Reed, D.R. (2003) Micromammal paleoecology: past and present relationships between African small mammals and their habitats. Interdepartmental Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.
46. Ritchie, M. (1998) Scale-dependent foraging and patch choice in fractal environments. Evolutionary Ecology, 12, 309 330.
47. Ritchie, M. (2002) Competition and coexistence of mobile animals. Competition and coexistence (ed. by U. Sommer B. Worm pp. 109 131. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
48. Sankaran, M., Ratnam, J. Hanan, N.P. (2004) Tree-grass coexistence in savannas revisited - insights from an examination of assumptions and mechanisms invoked in existing models. Ecology Letters, 7, 480 490.
49. Sankaran, M., Hanan, N., Scholes, R., Ratnam, J., Augustine, D., Cade, B., Gignoux, J., Higgins, S., Le Roux, X., Ludwig, F., Ardo, J., Banyikwa, F., Bronn, A., Bucini, G., Caylor, K., Coughenour, M., Diouf, A., Ekaya, W., Feral, C., February, E., Frost, P., Hiernaux, P., Hrabar, H., Metzger, K., Prins, H., Ringrose, S., Sea, W., Tews, J., Worden, J. Zambatis, N. (2005) Determinants of woody cover in African savannas. Nature, 438, 846 869.
50. Scholes, R.D. Archer, S.R. (1997) Tree-grass interactions in savannas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 28, 517 544.
51. Serneels, S. Lambin, E.F. (2001) Impact of land-use changes on the wildebeest migration in the northern part of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. Journal of Biogeography, 28, 391 407.
52. Sinclair, A.R.E. (1995) Serengeti past and present. Serengeti II: dynamics, management and conservation of an ecosystem (ed. by A.R.E. Sinclair P. Arcese pp. 3 30. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
53. Sinclair, A.R.E., Hopcraft, J.G.C., Olff, H., Mduma, S.A.R., Galvin, K.A. Sharam, G.J. (2008) Historical and future changes to the Serengeti ecosystem. Serengeti III: human impacts on ecosystem dynamics (ed. by A.R.E. Sinclair, C. Packer, S.A.R. Mduma J.M. Fryxell). Chicago University Press, Chicago.
54. Solbrig, O. (1996) The diversity of the savanna ecosystem. Ecological Studies, 121, 1 30.
55. Stohlgren, T.J., Falkner, M.B. Schell, L.D. (1995) A modified-Whittaker nested vegetation sampling method. Vegetatio, 117, 113 121.
56. Talbot, L.M. Kesel, R.H. (1975) The tropical savanna ecosystem. Geoscience and Man, 10, 15 26.
57. Thirgood, S., Mosser, A., Tham, S., Hopcraft, G., Mwangomo, E., Mlengeya, T., Kilewo, M., Fryxell, J., Sinclair, A.R.E. Borner, M. (2004) Can parks protect migratory ungulates? The case of the Serengeti wildebeest. Animal Conservation, 7, 113 120.
58. Urban, D. Keitt, T. (2001) Landscape connectivity: a graph theory perspective. Ecology, 82, 1205 1218.
59. Whittaker, R.J., Willis, K.J. Field, R. (2001) Scale and species richness: towards a general, hierarchical theory of species diversity. Journal of Biogeography, 28, 453 470.
60. Wilson, J.P. Gallant, J.C., eds (2000) Digital terrain analysis. Terrain analysis: principles and applications. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
61. deWit, H.A. (1978) Soils and grassland types of the Serengeti Plain (Tanzania): their distribution and interrelations. Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
62. deWit, H.A. Jeronimus, O.D. (1977) Soil map of the Serengeti Plains. Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
63. Witkowski, E.T. O'Connor, T.G. (1996) Topo-edaphic, floristic and physiognomic gradients of woody plants in a semi-arid African savanna woodland. Vegetatio, 124, 9 23.
64. Wolanski, E. Gereta, E. (2001) Water quantity and quality as the factors driving the Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania. Hydrobiologia, 458, 169 180.