Regional insight into savanna hydrogeomorphology from termite mounds

Nature Communications

Volumn 1, Issue 6, 2010, Pages

  Levick, Shaun R ^a   Asner, Gregory P ^a   Chadwick, Oliver A ^b   Khomo, Lesego M ^c   Rogers, Kevin H ^c   Hartshorn, Anthony S ^d   Kennedy Bowdoin, Ty ^a   Knapp, David E ^a  

^a GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

^d JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; FOREST; GRASSLAND; HYDROGEOMORPHOLOGY; INTROSPECTION; ISOPTERA; MORPHOLOGY; REGIONAL INSIGHT; RIPARIAN ECOSYSTEM; SAVANNA; STRUCTURE ANALYSIS; VEGETATION;

ISOPTERA;

EID: 84861630533     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20411723     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1066     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. Ludwig, J. A., Tongway, D. J. & Marsden, S. G. Stripes, strands or stipples: modelling the influence of three landscape banding patterns on resource capture and productivity in semi-arid woodlands, Australia. Catena 37, 257-273 ( 1999 ). (Pubitemid 29360570)
2. Rietkerk, M., Dekker, S. C., de Ruiter, P. C. & van de Koppel, J. Self-organized patchiness and catastrophic shift s in ecosystems. Science 305, 1926-1929 ( 2004 ). (Pubitemid 39287984)
3. Sankaran, M., Ratnam, J. & Hanan, N. P. Tree-grass coexistence in savannas revisited - insights from an examination of assumptions and mechanisms invoked in existing models. Ecol. Lett. 7, 480-490 ( 2004 ). (Pubitemid 38693390)
4. Mills, A. J., Rogers, K. H., Stalmans, M. & Witkowski, E. D. T. F. A framework for exploring the determinants of savanna and grassland distribution. BioScience 56, 579-589 ( 2006 ). (Pubitemid 44051427)
5. Wang, L., D'Odorico, P., Manzoni, S., Porporato, A. & Macko, S. Soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics in southern African savannas: the eff ect of vegetationinduced patch-scale heterogeneities and large scale rainfall gradients. Clim. Change 94, 63-76 ( 2009 ).
6. Jackson, R. B., Banner, J. L., Jobbagy, E. G., Pockman, W. T. & Wall, D. H. Ecosystem carbon loss with woody plant invasion of grasslands. Nature 418, 623-626 ( 2002 ).
7. Morison, C. G. T., Hoyle, A. C. & Hope-Simpson, J. F. Tropical soil-vegetation catenas and mosaics: a study in the South-Western part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. J. Ecol. 3 6, 1-84 ( 1948 ).
8. Milne, G. A soil reconnaissance journey through parts of Tanganyika Territory December 1935 to February 1936. J. Ecol. 35, 192-265 ( 1947 ).
9. Milne, G. Normal erosion as a factor in soil profile development. Nature 1 38, 548-549 ( 1936 ).
10. Scholes, R. J. & Walker, B. H. An African Savanna: Synthesis of the Nylsvley Study ( Cambridge University Press, 1993 ).
11. du Toit, J. T. Large herbivores and savanna heterogeneity, in The Kruger Experience: Ecology and Management of Savanna Heterogeneity (eds du Toit, J. T., Biggs, H. C. & Rogers, K. H.) Ch. 14, 292-309 ( Island, 2003 ).
12. Pullan, R. A. Termite hills in Africa: their characteristics and evolution. Catena 6, 267-291 ( 1979 ). (Pubitemid 10253410)
13. Schuurman, G. & Dangerfi eld, J. Dispersion and abundance of Macrotermes michaelseni colonies: a limited role for intraspecifi c competition. J. Trop. Ecol. 13, 39-49 ( 1997 ).
14. Korb, J. & Linsenmair, K. The causes of spatial patterning of mounds of a fungus-cultivating termite: results from nearest-neighbour analysis and ecological studies. Oecologia 1 27, 324-333 ( 2001 ). (Pubitemid 32449353)
15. Meyer, V., Braack, L., Biggs, H. & Ebersohn, C. Distribution and density of termite mounds in the northern Kruger National Park, with specifi c reference to those constructed by Macrotermes Holmgren(Isoptera: Termitidae). Afr. Entomol. 7 ( 1999 ).
16. Pomeroy, D. E. Some effects of mound-building termites on the soils of a semi-arid area of Kenya. E ur. J. Soil Sci. 34, 555-570 ( 1983 ).
17. Asner, G. P. et al. Carnegie Airborne Observatory: in-fl ight fusion of hyperspectral imaging and waveform light detection and ranging (wLiDAR) for three-dimensional studies of ecosystems. J. Appl. Remote Sens. 1, 1-21 ( 2007 ).
18. 2 and fi re in promoting the spread of grasslands and savannas. Glob. Chang. Biol. 9, 973-982 ( 2003 ). (Pubitemid 36941473)
19. Sankaran, M. et al. Determinants of woody cover in African savannas. Nature 438, 846-849 ( 2005 ). (Pubitemid 41753065)
20. Khomo, L. Weathering and Soil Properties on Old Granitic Catenas Along Climo-Topographic Gradients in Kruger National Park PhD thesis ( Univ. Witwatersrand, 2008 ).
21. Venter, F. J., Scholes, R. J. & Eckhardt, H. C. The abiotic template and its associated vegetation pattern, in The Kruger Experience: Ecology and Management of Savanna Heterogeneity (eds du Toit, J. T., Biggs, H. C. & Rogers, K. H.) Ch. 5, 83-129 ( Island, 2003 ).
22. Boko, M. e t al. in C limate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Parry, M. L. et al. ) 433 - 467 ( Cambridge University Press, 2007 ).
23. 2 controlled mechanism of woody plant invasion in grasslands and savannas. Glob. Chang. Biol. 6, 865-869 ( 2000 ). (Pubitemid 32978591)
24. Scheiter, S. & Higgins, S. I. Impacts of climate change on the vegetation of Africa: an adaptive dynamic vegetation modelling approach. Glob. Chang. Biol. 15, 2224-2246 ( 2009 ).
25. Christensen, J. et al. in C limate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Solomon, S. et al. ) 847 - 940 ( Cambridge University Press, 2007 ).
26. Lefsky, M. A. e t al. Lidar remote sensing of the canopy structure and biophysical properties of Douglas-fi r western hemlock forests. Remote Sens. Environ. 7 0, 339-361 ( 1999 ). (Pubitemid 30028291)
27. Lefsky, M. A., Cohen, W. B., Parker, G. G. & Harding, D. J. Lidar remote sensing for ecosystem studies. BioScience 52, 19-30 ( 2002 ). (Pubitemid 34119618)
28. Asner, G. et al. Large-scale impacts of herbivores on the structural diversity of African savannas. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 1 06, 4947-4952 ( 2009 ).
29. R Development Core Team. R : A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing ( R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2009 ) http://www.r-project. org/ index.html.