Cascading biodiversity and functional consequences of a global change-induced biome switch

Diversity and Distributions

Volumn 18, Issue 5, 2012, Pages 493-503

  Parr, Catherine L ^a   Gray, Emma F ^b   Bond, William J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

Bush encroachment; Regime shift; Savanna; Thicket; Vegetation change; Woody thickening

Indexed keywords

ANT; BIODIVERSITY; BIOME; BROAD-LEAVED FOREST; C4 PLANT; COMMUNITY COMPOSITION; COMMUNITY RESPONSE; CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT; DOMINANCE; FAUNA; GLOBAL CHANGE; GRASS; HABITAT QUALITY; SAVANNA; TROPHIC STRUCTURE; VEGETATION DYNAMICS; WOODY PLANT;

HLUHLUWE GAME RESERVE; HLUHLUWE-UMFOLOZI PARK; KWAZULU-NATAL; SOUTH AFRICA;

FORMICIDAE; POACEAE;

EID: 84859436086     PISSN: 13669516     EISSN: 14724642     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2012.00882.x     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. Andersen, A.N., Parr, C.L., Lowe, L.M. & Müller, W.J. (2007) Contrasting fire-related resilience of ecologically dominant ants in tropical savannas of northern Australia. Diversity & Distributions, 13, 438-446.
2. Archer, S., Boutton, T.W. & Hibbard, K.A. (2001) Trees in grasslands: biogeochemical consequences of woody plant expansion. Global biogeochemical cycles in the climate system (ed. by E.-D. Schulze, M. Heimann, S. Harrison, E. Holland, J. Lloyd & I. Prentice ), pp. 115-138. Academic Press: San Diego.
3. Asner, G., Elmore, A.J., Olander, L.P., Martin, R.E. & Harris, A.T. (2004) Grazing systems, ecosystem responses and global change. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 29, 11.1-11.39.
4. Balfour, D.A. & Howison, O.E. (2001) Spatial and temporal variation in a mesic savanna fire regime: responses to variation in annual rainfall. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 19, 43-51.
5. Beerling, D.J. & Osborne, C.P. (2006) The origin of the savanna biome. Global Change Biology, 12, 2023-2031.
6. 4 grasslands and savannas? Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics, 39, 641-659.
7. 2-controlled mechanism of woody plant invasion in grasslands and savannas. Global Change Biology, 6, 865-869.
8. 2 and the uneasy interactions of trees and savanna grasses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, 367, 601-612.
9. Bond, W.J. & Parr, C.L. (2010) Beyond the forest edge: ecology, diversity and conservation of grassy biomes. Biological Conservation, 143, 2395-2404.
10. Bond, W.J., Midgley, G.F. & Woodward, F.I. (2003) The importance of low atmospheric CO2 and fire in promoting the spread of grasslands and savannas. Global Change Biology, 9, 973-982.
11. Brantley, S.T. & Young, D.R. (2009) Contribution of sunflecks in minimal in expanding shrub thickets compared to temperate forest. Ecology, 90, 1021-1029.
12. Britz, M.L. & Ward, D. (2007) Dynamics of woody vegetation in a semi-arid savanna with a focus on bush encroachment. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 24, 131-140.
13. Brown, W.L. Jr (2000) Diversity of Ants. Ants: standard methods for measuring and monitoring biodiversity (ed. by D. Agosti, J.D. Majer, L.E. Alonso and T.R. Schultz ), pp. 45-79. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
14. Burrows, W.H., Scanlan, J.C. & Rutherford, M. (eds) (1988) Native pastures in Queensland: their resources and management. Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Government, Brisbane, Australia.
15. Clarke, K.R. & Gorley, R.N. (2006) PRIMER v6: user manual/tutorial. Primer-e, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK.
16. Clarke, K.R. & Warwick, R.M. (2001) Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation, 2nd edn. Primer-e, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK.
17. Cowling, R.M., Proche, S. & Vlok, J.H.J. (2005) On the origin of southern African subtropical thicket vegetation. South African Journal of Botany, 71, 1-23.
18. Dufrêne, M. & Legendre, P. (1997) Species assemblages and indicator species: the need for a flexible asymmetrical approach. Ecological Monographs, 67, 345-366.
19. Estes, J.A., Terbough, J., Brashares, J.S. et al. (2011) Trophic downgrading of planet Earth. Science, 333, 301-306.
20. Fensham, R.J. & Fairfax, R.J. (2003) Assessing woody vegetation cover change in northwest Australian savanna using aerial photography. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 12, 359-367.
21. Fisher, B.L. (1999) Improving inventory efficiency: a case study of leaf-litter ant diversity in Madagascar. Ecological Monographs, 9, 714-731.
22. Gray, E.F. (2011) Some consequences of woody plant encroachment in a mesic South African savanna. MSc thesis, Department of Botany, University of Cape Town, Cape Town. Unpublished.
23. Hamer, M. & Slotow, R. (2006) A comparison and conservation assessment of the high-altitude and forest-millipede (Diplopoda) fauna of the South African Drakensberg. Soil Organisms, 81, 701-717.
24. Higgins, S.I., Shackleton, C.M. & Robinson, R. (1999) Changes in woody community structure and composition under contrasting landuse systems in a semi-arid savanna, South Africa. Journal of Biogeography, 26, 619-627.
25. Hoffmann, M.T. & O'Connor, T.G. (1999) Vegetation change over 40years in the Weenen/Muden area, KwaZulu-Natal: evidence from photo panoramas. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 16, 71-88.
26. 2 enhances resprouting of a tropical savanna tree. Oecologia, 123, 312-317.
27. Hoffmann, W.A., Schroeder, W. & Jackson, R.B. (2002) Positive feedbacks of fire, climate and vegetation and the conversion of tropical savannas. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108, 1-11.
28. Hudak, A.T. & Wessman, C.A. (1998) Textural analysis of historical aerial photography to characterise woody plant encroachment in South African savanna. Remote Sensing & Environment, 66, 317-330.
29. 2] as a driver of past and current changes in savanna tree cover. Austral Ecology, 35, 451-463.
30. Lach, L., Parr, C.L. & Abbot, K.L. (eds) (2010) Ant ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
31. Low, A.B. & Rebelo, A.G. (1996) Vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Pretoria, South Africa.
32. MacArthur, R.H. & MacArthur, J.W. (1961) On bird species diversity. Ecology, 42, 594-598.
33. McGeoch, M.A. & Chown, S.L. (1998) Scaling up the value of bioindicators. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 13, 46-47.
34. McGeoch, M.A., Van Rensburg, B.J. & Botes, A. (2002) The verification and application of bioindicators: a case study of dung beetles in a savanna ecosystem. Journal of Applied Ecology, 39, 661-672.
35. Moleele, N.M., Ringrose, S., Matheson, W. & Vanderpost, C. (2002) More woody plants? The status of bush encroachment in Botswana's grazing areas. Journal of Environmental Management, 64, 3-11.
36. Mucina, L.M. & Rutherford, M.C. (2006) The vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. SANBI, Pretoria.
37. Mugasi, S.K., Sabiiti, E.N. & Tayebwa, B.M. (2000) The economic implications of bush encroachment on livestock farming in rangelands of Uganda. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 17, 64-69.
38. O'Connor, T.G. & Crow, V.R.T. (1999) Rate and pattern of bush encroachment in Eastern Cape savanna and grassland. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 16, 26-31.
39. Parr, C.L. & Chown, S.L. (2001) Inventory and bioindicator sampling: testing pitfall and Winkler methods with ants in a?South African savanna. Journal of Insect Conservation, 5, 27-36.
40. Pennington, R.T., Lavin, M. & Oliveira-Filho, A. (2009) Woody plant diversity, evolution and ecology in the Tropics: perspectives from Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 40, 437-457.
41. Puyravaud, J.-P., Dufour, C. & Aravajy, S. (2003) Rainforest expansion mediated by sucessional processes in vegetation thickets in the Western Ghats of India. Journal of Biogeography, 30, 1067-1080.
42. Ratnam, J., Bond, W.J., Fensham, R.J., Hoffmann, W.A., Archibald, S., Lehmann, C.E.R., Anderson, M.T., Higgins, S.I. & Sankaran, M. (2011) When is a "forest" a savanna, and why does it matter? Global Ecology and Biogeography, 20, 653-660.
43. Roques, K.G., O'Connor, T.G. & Watkinson, A.R. (2001) Dynamics of shrub encroachment in an African savanna: relative influences of fire, herbivory, rainfall and density dependence. Journal of Applied Ecology, 38, 268-280.
44. Rossatto, D.R., Hoffmann, W.A. & Franco, A.C. (2009) Differences in growth patterns between co-occurring forest and savanna trees affect the forest-savanna boundary. Functional Ecology, 23, 689-698.
45. Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S.R., Foley, J.A., Folke, C. & Walker, B. (2001) Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature, 413, 591-596.
46. Scheffer, M., van Nes, E.H., Holmgren, M. & Hughes, T. (2008) Pulse-driven loss of top-down control: the critical-rate hypothesis. Ecosystems, 11, 226-237.
47. Scholes, R.J. & Archer, S.R. (1997) Tree-grass interactions in savannas. Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics, 28, 545-570.
48. Sharam, G., Sinclair, A.R.E. & Turkington, R. (2006) Establishment of broad-leaved thickets in Serengeti, Tanzania: the influence of fire, browsers, grass competition, and elephants. Biotropica, 38, 599-605.
49. Sirami, C. & Monadjem, A. (2012) Changes in bird communities in Swaziland savannas between 1998 and 2008 owing to shrub encroachment. Diversity & Distributions, doi:
50. Sirami, C., Seymour, C., Midgley, G. & Barnard, P. (2009) The impact of shrub encroachment on savanna bird diversity from local to regional scale. Diversity & Distributions, 15, 948-957.
51. Skarpe, C. (1990) Structure of the woody vegetation in disturbed and undisturbed arid savanna, Botswana. Plant Ecology, 87, 11-18.
52. Skowno, A.L. & Bond, W.J. (2003) Bird community composition in an actively managed savanna reserve: importance of vegetation structure and vegetation composition. Biodiversity & Conservation, 12, 2279-2294.
53. Spottiswoode, C.N., Wondafrash, M., Gabremichael, M.N., Dellelegn Abebe, Y., Mwangi, M.A.K., Collar, N.J. & Dolman, P.M. (2009) Rangeland degradation is poised to cause Africa's first recorded avian extinction. Animal Conservation, 12, 249-257.
54. Steenkamp, H.E. & Chown, S.L. (1996) Influence of dense stands of an exotic tree, Prosopis glandulosa Benson, on a savanna dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) assemblage in southern Africa. Biological Conservation, 78, 305-311.
55. Uys, R.G. (2006) Patterns of plant diversity and their management across South African rangelands. PhD thesis, Botany Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town. Unpublished
56. Uys, R.G., Bond, W.J. & Everson, T.M. (2004) The effects of different fire regimes on plant diversity in southern African grasslands. Biological Conservation, 118, 489-499.
57. Van Auken, O.W. (2000) Shrub invasion of North American semi-arid grasslands. Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics, 31, 197-215.
58. Van Ingen, L.T., Campos, R.I. & Andersen, A.N. (2008) Ant community structure along an extended rain forest-savanna gradient in tropical Australia. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 24, 445-455.
59. Van Rensburg, B.J., McGeoch, M.A., Chown, S.L. & Van Jaarsveld, A.S. (1999) Conservation of heterogeneity among dung beetle in the Maputaland Centre of Endemism. Biological Conservation, 88, 145-153.
60. Vasconcelos, H.I. & Vilhena, J.M.S. (2006) Species turnover and vertical partitioning of ant assemblages in the Brazilian Amazon: a comparison of forests and savannas. Biotropica, 38, 100-106.
61. West, A.G., Bond, W.J. & Midgley, J.J. (2000) Soil carbon isotopes reveal ancient grassland under forest in Hluhluwe, KwaZulu-Natal. South African Journal of Science, 96, 252-253.
62. Whateley, A. & Porter, R. (1983) The woody communities of the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve Complex. Bothalia, 4, 745-758.
63. Wigley, B.J., Bond, W.J. & Hoffmann, M.T. (2010) Thicket expansion in a South African savanna under divergent land use: local vs. global drivers? Global Change Biology, 16, 964-976.
64. Zaloumis, N.P. & Bond, W.J. (2011) Grassland restoration after afforestation: no direction home? Austral Ecology, 36, 357-366.