Spatial patterns in the effects of fire on savanna vegetation three-dimensional structure

Ecological Applications

Volumn 22, Issue 8, 2012, Pages 2110-2121

  Levick, Shaun R ^a,c   Asner, Gregory P ^a   Smit, Izak P J ^b  

^a GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^b SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PARKS   (South Africa)

^c MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR BIOGEOCHEMISTRY   (Germany)

Author keywords

Catena; Fire frequency; Heterogeneity; Kruger National Park; Landscape; LiDAR; Management; Savanna structure; South Africa; Topography

Indexed keywords

BASALT; CANOPY; FIRE BEHAVIOR; FREQUENCY ANALYSIS; HETEROGENEITY; HILLSLOPE; LANDSCAPE; LIDAR; MANAGEMENT PRACTICE; POLICY MAKING; SATELLITE IMAGERY; SAVANNA; SPATIAL VARIATION; STRUCTURAL RESPONSE; SUBSTRATE; THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELING; TOPOGRAPHY; VEGETATION STRUCTURE;

ARTICLE; DEMOGRAPHY; ECOSYSTEM; ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; FIRE; GEOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA; PLANT; REMOTE SENSING; SEASON; SOUTH AFRICA; TIME;

DEMOGRAPHY; ECOSYSTEM; ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; FIRES; GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA; PLANTS; REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY; SEASONS; SOUTH AFRICA; TIME FACTORS;

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK; SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 84871198632     PISSN: 10510761     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/12-0178.1     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Asner, G. P., D. E. Knapp, T. Kennedy-Bowdoin, M. O. Jones, R. E. Martin, J. Boardman, and C. B. Field. 2007. Carnegie airborne observatory: In-flight fusion of hyperspectral imaging and waveform light detection and ranging for three-dimensional studies of ecosystems. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 1:013536.
2. Asner, G. P., S. R. Levick, T. Kennedy-Bowdoin, D. E. Knapp, R. Emerson, J. Jacobson, M. S. Colgan, and R. E. Martin. 2009. Large-scale impacts of herbivores on the structural diversity of African savannas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106:4947-4952.
3. Bell, R. 1982. The effect of soil nutrient availability on community structure in African ecosystems. Pages 193-216 in B. J. Huntley and B. H. Walker, editors. Ecology of tropical savannas. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
4. Belsky, A. J. 1995. Spatial and temporal landscape patterns in arid and semi-arid African savannas. Pages 31-56 in L. Hansson, L. Fahrig, and G. Merriam, editors. Mosaic landscape and ecological processes. Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
5. Belsky, A. J., R. G. Amundson, J. M. Duxbury, S. J. Riha, A. R. Ali, and S. M. Mwonga. 1989. The effects of trees on their physical, chemical and biological environments in a semi-arid savanna in Kenya. Journal of Applied Ecology 26:1005-1024.
6. Belsky, A. J., and C. D. Canham. 1994. Forest gaps and isolated savanna trees. BioScience 44:77-84.
7. Bond, W. J., and S. Archibald. 2003. Confronting complexity: Fire policy choices in South African savanna parks. International Journal of Wildland Fire 12:381-389.
8. Bond, W. J., and J. E. Keeley. 2005. Fire as a global 'herbivore': The ecology and evolution of flammable ecosystems. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:387-394.
9. Briggs, J. M., A. K. Knapp, and B. L. Brock. 2002. Expansion of woody plants in tallgrass prairie: A fifteen-year study of fire and fire-grazing interactions. American Midland Naturalist 147:287-294.
10. Brockett, B. H., H. C. Biggs, and B. W. van Wilgen. 2001. A patch mosaic burning system for conservation areas in southern African savannas. International Journal of Wildland Fire 10:169-183.
11. Coetsee, C., W. Bond, and E. February. 2010. Frequent fire affects soil nitrogen and carbon in an African savanna by changing woody cover. Oecologia 162:1027-1034.
12. Coughenour, M. B., and J. E. Ellis. 1993. Landscape and climatic control of woody vegetation in a dry tropical ecosystem: Turkana District, Kenya. Journal of Biogeography 20:383-398.
13. Cumming, D., M. Fenton, I. Rautenbach, R. Taylor, G. Cumming, M. Cumming, J. Dunlop, A. Ford, and M. Hovorka. 1997. Elephants, woodlands and biodiversity in southern Africa. South African Journal of Science 93:231-236.
14. du Toit, J. T., J. P. Bryant, and K. Frisby. 1990. Regrowth and palatability of Acacia shoots following pruning by African savanna browsers. Ecology 149-154.
15. Facelli, J. M., and D. J. Brock. 2000. Patch dynamics in arid lands: Localized effects of Acacia papyrocarpa on soils and vegetation of open woodlands of south Australia. Ecography 23:479-491.
16. Fenton, M. B., et al. 1998. Bats and the loss of tree canopy in African woodlands. Conservation Biology 12:399-407.
17. Furley, P. A., R. M. Rees, C. M. Ryan, and G. Saiz. 2008. Savanna burning and the assessment of long-term fire experiments with particular reference to Zimbabwe. Progress in Physical Geography 32:611-634.
18. Gillson, L. 2004. Evidence of hierarchical patch dynamics in an East African savanna? Landscape Ecology 19:883-894.
19. Govender, N., W. S. W. Trollope, and B. W. Van Wilgen. 2006. The effect of fire season, fire frequency, rainfall and management on fire intensity in savanna vegetation in South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology 43:748-758.
20. Grace, J., J. S. José, P. Meir, H. S. Miranda, and R. A. Montes. 2006. Productivity and carbon fluxes of tropical savannas. Journal of Biogeography 33:387-400.
21. Grant, C., and M. Scholes. 2006. The importance of nutrient hot-spots in the conservation and management of large wild mammalian herbivores in semi-arid savannas. Biological Conservation 130:426-437.
22. Helm, C., G. Wilson, J. Midgley, L. Kruger, and E. T. F. Witkowski. 2011. Investigating the vulnerability of an African savanna tree (Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra) to fire and herbivory. Austral Ecology 36:964-973.
23. Helm, C. V., and E. T. F. Witkowski. 2012. Characterising wide spatial variation in population size structure of a keystone African savanna tree. Forest Ecology and Management 263:175-188.
24. Herremans, M. 1995. Effects of woodland modification by African elephant Loxodonta africana on bird diversity in northern Botswana. Ecography 18:440-454.
25. Hibbard, K. A., S. Archer, D. S. Schimel, and D. W. Valentine. 2001. Biogeochemical changes accompanying woody plant encroachment in a subtropical savanna. Ecology 82:1999-2011.
26. Higgins, S. I., W. J. Bond, E. C. February, A. Bronn, D. I. W. Euston-Brown, B. Enslin, N. Govender, L. Rademan, S. O'Regan, and A. L. F. Potgieter. 2007. Effects of four decades of fire manipulation on woody vegetation structure in savanna. Ecology 88:1119-1125.
27. Higgins, S. I., W. J. Bond, and W. S. W. Trollope. 2000. Fire, resprouting and variability: A recipe for grass-tree coexistence in savanna. Journal of Ecology 88:213-229.
28. Holdo, R. M., M. C. Mack, and S. G. Arnold. 2012. Tree canopies explain fire effects on soil nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon in a savanna ecosystem. Journal of Vegetation Science 23:352-360.
29. Khomo, L., A. S. Hartshorn, K. H. Rogers, and O. A. Chadwick. 2011. Impact of rainfall and topography on the distribution of clays and major cations in granitic catenas of southern Africa. Catena 87:119-128.
30. Lefsky, M. A., W. B. Cohen, G. G. Parker, and D. J. Harding. 2002. Lidar remote sensing for ecosystem studies. BioScience 52:19-30.
31. Levick, S. R., G. P. Asner, O. A. Chadwick, L. M. Khomo, K. H. Rogers, A. S. Hartshorn, T. Kennedy-Bowdoin, and D. E. Knapp. 2010. Regional insight into savanna hydrogeomorphology from termite mounds. Nature Communications 1:65.
32. Levick, S. R., G. P. Asner, T. Kennedy-Bowdoin, and D. E. Knapp. 2009. The relative influence of fire and herbivory on savanna three-dimensional vegetation structure. Biological Conservation 142:1693-1700.
33. Levick, S., and K. Rogers. 2008. Patch and species specific responses of savanna woody vegetation to browser exclusion. Biological Conservation 141:489-498.
34. Levick, S., and K. Rogers. 2011. Context-dependent vegetation dynamics in an African savanna. Landscape Ecology 26:515-528.
35. Midgley, J. J., M. J. Lawes, and S. Chamaille-Jammes. 2010. Savanna woody plant dynamics: The role of fire and herbivory, separately and synergistically. Australian Journal of Botany 58:1-11.
36. Milne, G. 1935. Some suggested units of classification and mapping particularly for East African soils. Soil Research 4:183-198.
37. Milne, G. 1936. Normal erosion as a factor in soil profile development. Nature 138:548-549.
38. Moreira, A. G. 2000. Effects of fire protection on savanna structure in Central Brazil. Journal of Biogeography 27:1021-1029.
39. Morison, C., A. Hoyle, and J. Hope-Simpson. 1948. Tropical soil-vegetation catenas and mosaics: A study in the south-western part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Journal of Ecology 36:1-84.
40. Parr, C. L., and A. N. Andersen. 2006. Patch mosaic burning for biodiversity conservation: A critique of the pyrodiversity paradigm. Conservation Biology 20:1610-1619.
41. Parr, C. L., and B. Brockett. 1999. Patch-mosaic burning: A new paradigm for savanna fire management in protected areas? Koedoe 42:117-130.
42. Pickett, S. T. A., and M. L. Cadenasso. 1995. Landscape ecology: Spatial heterogeneity in ecological systems. Science 269:331-334.
43. Pringle, R. M., and K. Fox-Dobbs. 2008. Coupling of canopy and understory food webs by ground-dwelling predators. Ecology Letters 11:1328-1337.
44. Riginos, C. 2009. Grass competition suppresses savanna tree growth across multiple demographic stages. Ecology 90:335-340.
45. Rogers, K. H., J. du Toit, K. Rogers, and H. Biggs. 2003. Adopting a heterogeneity paradigm: Implications for management of protected savannas. Pages 41-58 in J. du Toit, H. C. Biggs, and K. H. Rogers, editors. The Kruger experience: Ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity. Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
46. Roques, K., T. O'Connor, and A. Watkinson. 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.
47. Sabiiti, E. N., and R. W. Wein. 1988. Fire behaviour and the invasion of Acacia sieberiana into savanna grassland openings. African Journal of Ecology 26:301-313.
48. Scholes, M. C., R. J. Scholes, L. B. Otter, and A. J. Woghiren. 2003. Biogeochemistry: The cycling of elements. Pages 131-148 in J. T. du Toit, K. H. Rogers, and H. C. Biggs, editors. The Kruger experience: Ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity. Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
49. Scholes, R., and S. Archer. 1997. Tree-grass interactions in savannas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28:517-544.
50. Scholes, R. J., and B. H. Walker. 1993. An African savanna: Synthesis of the Nylsvley study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
51. Shannon, G., M. Thaker, A. T. Vanak, B. R. Page, R. Grant, and R. Slotow. 2011. Relative impacts of elephant and fire on large trees in a savanna ecosystem. Ecosystems 14:1372-1381.
52. Skarpe, C., R. Bergstrom, A. Bra° ten, and K. Danell. 2000. Browsing in a heterogeneous savanna. Ecography 23:632-640.
53. Skowno, A. L., and W. J. Bond. 2003. Bird community composition in an actively managed savanna reserve, importance of vegetation structure and vegetation composition. Biodiversity and Conservation 12:2279-2294.
54. Smit, I. P. J., G. P. Asner, N. Govender, T. Kennedy-Bowdoin, D. E. Knapp, and J. Jacobson. 2010. Effects of fire on woody vegetation structure in African savanna. Ecological Applications 20:1865-1875.
55. Staver, A. C., S. Archibald, and S. A. Levin. 2011. The global extent and determinants of savanna and forest as alternative biome states. Science 334:230-232.
56. Staver, A. C., W. J. Bond, W. D. Stock, S. J. van Rensburg, and M. S. Waldram. 2009. Browsing and fire interact to suppress tree density in an African savanna. Ecological Applications 19:1909-1919.
57. Turner, M. G. 1989. Landscape ecology: The effect of pattern on process. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 20:171-197.
58. van Wilgen, B. W., N. Govender, and H. C. Biggs. 2007. The contribution of fire research to fire management: A critical review of a long-term experiment in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. International Journal of Wildland Fire 16:519-530.
59. van Wilgen, B. W., N. Govender, H. C. Biggs, D. Ntsala, and X. N. Funda. 2004. Response of savanna fire regimes to changing fire-management policies in a large African national park. Conservation Biology 18:1533-1540.
60. Venter, F. J., R. J. Scholes, H. C. Eckhardt, J. T. Du Toit, K. H. Rogers, and H. Biggs. 2003. The abiotic template and its associated vegetation pattern. Pages 83-129 in J. T. du Toit, K. H. Rogers, and C. H. Biggs, editors. The Kruger experience: Ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity. Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
61. Vitousek, P., G. P. Asner, O. A. Chadwick, and S. Hotchkiss. 2009. Landscape-level variation in forest structure and biogeochemistry across a substrate age gradient in Hawaii. Ecology 90:3074-3086.
62. Wiens, J. A., and B. T. Milne. 1989. Scaling of 'landscapes' in landscape ecology, or, landscape ecology from a beetle's perspective. Landscape Ecology 3:87-96.
63. Williams, R. J., L. B. Hutley, G. D. Cook, J. Russell-Smith, A. Edwards, and X. Chen. 2004. Assessing the carbon sequestration potential of mesic savannas in the Northern Territory, Australia: Approaches, uncertainties and potential impacts of fire. Functional Plant Biology 31:415-422.
64. Williams, R. J., J. C. Z. Woinarski, and A. N. Andersen. 2003. Fire experiments in northern Australia: Contributions to ecological understanding and biodiversity conservation in tropical savannas. International Journal of Wildland Fire 12:391-402.
65. Winnie, J. A., P. Cross, and W. Getz. 2008. Habitat quality and heterogeneity influence distribution and behavior in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Ecology 89:1457-1468.