How pastoralism changes savanna vegetation: impact of old pastoral settlements on plant diversity and abundance in south-western Kenya

Vuorio, Ville; Muchiru, A.N.; Reid, Robin S.; Ogutu, Joseph O.

doi:10.1007/s10531-014-0777-4

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To help manage this matrix, fragmented rangelands across Kenya are being merged and managed together in form of wildlife conservancies [3,100]. Conservancies are lands set aside for wildlife and tourism with controlled livestock grazing to promote wildlife conservation and pastoral well-being through partnerships between tourism operators and landowners [17,29,40,101]. The tourism operators manage the conservancy and pay landowners fixed land lease payments (maximum of 50 dollars per hectare per year) to voluntary vacate their land and refrain from putting up settlements, overgrazing and practicing agriculture [17,102].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rangeland Livelihood Strategies under Varying Climate Regimes: Model Insights from Southern Kenya

Kariuki

Willcock

Marchant

2018

Land

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rangelands throughout sub-Saharan Africa are currently undergoing two major pressures: climate change (through altered rainfall and seasonality patterns) and habitat fragmentation (brought by land use change driven by land demand for agriculture and conservation). Here we explore these dimensions, investigating the impact of land use change decisions, by pastoralists in southern Kenya rangelands, on human well-being and animal densities using an agent-based model. The constructed agent-based model uses input biomass data simulated by the Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator (LPJ-GUESS) dynamic vegetation model and parameterized with data from literature. Scenarios of land use change under different rainfall years, land tenure types and levels of wildlife conservation support were simulated. Reflecting reality, our results show livestock grazing as the predominant land use that changes with precipitation and land tenure leading to varying livelihood strategies. For example, agriculture is the most common livelihood in wet years and conservation levels increase with increasing support of wildlife conservation initiatives. Our model demonstrates the complex and multiple interactions between pastoralists, land management and the environment. We highlight the importance of understanding the conditions driving the sustainability of semi-arid rangelands and the communities they support, and the role of external actors, such as wildlife conservation investors, in East Africa.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rangeland Livelihood Strategies under Varying Climate Regimes: Model Insights from Southern Kenya

Kariuki

Willcock

Marchant

2018

Land

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Under these conditions, livestock and wildlife can coexist outside core protected areas (CPAs; 22,23). Unprotected areas (UPAs) can support ecotourism and harvesting of wildlife, while livestock keeping can create local nutrient hotspots that increase biodiversity (24,25). This can lead to mutually beneficial relationships between people and wildlife (26) over longs periods of time (27).…”

Section: The Concept Of Spatial Compression In Pas (Fig1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-boundary human impacts compromise the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem

Veldhuis

Ritchie

Ogutu

et al. 2019

Science

Self Cite

200

187

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Protected areas provide major benefits for humans in the form of ecosystem services, but landscape degradation by human activity at their edges may compromise their ecological functioning. Using multiple lines of evidence from 40 years of research in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, we find that such edge degradation has effectively “squeezed” wildlife into the core protected area and has altered the ecosystem’s dynamics even within this 40,000-square-kilometer ecosystem. This spatial cascade reduced resilience in the core and was mediated by the movement of grazers, which reduced grass fuel and fires, weakened the capacity of soils to sequester nutrients and carbon, and decreased the responsiveness of primary production to rainfall. Similar effects in other protected ecosystems worldwide may require rethinking of natural resource management outside protected areas.

show abstract

“…Indeed, the ecological dominance of T. triandra relies on periodic burning and its ability to rapidly resprout post fire (Bond et al 2003;Morgan and Lunt 1999). For example, in Serengeti region T. triandra comprises approximately 50% of grass cover in areas of light to moderate grazing (Vuorio et al 2014), but is lost from a system where both fire and grazing are excluded (Danckwerts 1993). Themeda triandra is also a crucial food source for domestic livestock and wildlife in both Africa and Australia (McNaughton 1985;Morgan and Lunt 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The recent and rapid spread of Themeda triandra

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tropical savannas cover over 20% of land surface. They sustain a high diversity of mammalian herbivores and promote frequent fires, both of which are dependent on the underlying grass composition. These habitats are typically dominated by relatively few taxa, and the evolutionary origins of the dominant grass species are largely unknown. Here, we trace the origins of the genus Themeda, which contains a number of widespread grass species dominating tropical savannas. Complete chloroplast genomes were assembled for seven samples and supplemented with chloroplast and nuclear ITS markers for 71 samples representing 18 of the 27 Themeda species. Phylogenetic analysis supports a South Asian origin for both the genus and the widespread dominant T. triandra. This species emerged ~1.5 Ma from a group that had lived in the savannas of Asia for several million years. It migrated to Australia ~1.3 Ma and to mainland Africa ~0.5 Ma, where it rapidly spread in pre-existing savannas and displaced other species. Themeda quadrivalvis, the second most widespread Themeda species, is nested within T. triandra based on whole chloroplast genomes, and may represent a recent evolution of an annual growth form that is otherwise almost indistinguishable from T. triandra. The recent spread and modernday dominance of T. triandra highlight the dynamism of tropical grassy biomes over millennial time-scales that has not been appreciated, with dramatic shifts in species dominance in recent evolutionary times. The ensuing species replacements likely had profound effects on fire and herbivore regimes across tropical savannas.

show abstract

How pastoralism changes savanna vegetation: impact of old pastoral settlements on plant diversity and abundance in south-western Kenya

Cited by 20 publications

References 49 publications

Rangeland Livelihood Strategies under Varying Climate Regimes: Model Insights from Southern Kenya

Rangeland Livelihood Strategies under Varying Climate Regimes: Model Insights from Southern Kenya

Cross-boundary human impacts compromise the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem

The recent and rapid spread of Themeda triandra

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About