Managing grassland for wildlife: the effects of rotational burning on tick presence and abundance in African savannah habitat

Goodenough, Anne E.; Harrell, Alison N.; Keating, Rachel L.; Rolfe, Richard N.; Stubbs, Hannah; MacTavish, Lynne; Hart, Adam G.

doi:10.2981/wlb.00318

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(41 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the Serengeti NP, large areas are burnt soon after the end of the long rains, which is not the case in Etosha NP. ‘Early burning’ should decrease tick abundance in burnt areas [ 35 ] and thereby reduce the transmission of tick-borne parasites. Hence infection with tick-borne parasites should be lower in spotted hyenas in the Serengeti NP than in Etosha NP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity of vector-borne pathogens in spotted and brown hyenas from Namibia and Tanzania relates to ecological conditions rather than host taxonomy

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Improved knowledge on vector-borne pathogens in wildlife will help determine their effect on host species at the population and individual level and whether these are affected by anthropogenic factors such as global climate change and landscape changes. Here, samples from brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) from Namibia (BHNA) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) from Namibia (SHNA) and Tanzania (SHTZ) were screened for vector-borne pathogens to assess the frequency and genetic diversity of pathogens and the effect of ecological conditions and host taxonomy on this diversity. Methods Tissue samples from BHNA (n = 17), SHNA (n = 19) and SHTZ (n = 25) were analysed by PCRs targeting Anaplasmataceae, Rickettsia spp., piroplasms, specifically Babesia lengau-like piroplasms, Hepatozoidae and filarioids. After sequencing, maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analyses were conducted. Results The relative frequency of Anaplasmataceae was significantly higher in BHNA (82.4%) and SHNA (100.0%) than in SHTZ (32.0%). Only Anaplasma phagocytophilum/platys-like and Anaplasma bovis-like sequences were detected. Rickettsia raoultii was found in one BHNA and three SHTZ. This is the first report of R. raoultii from sub-Saharan Africa. Babesia lengau-like piroplasms were found in 70.6% of BHNA, 88.9% of SHNA and 32.0% of SHTZ, showing higher sequence diversity than B. lengau from South African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus). In one SHTZ, a Babesia vogeli-like sequence was identified. Hepatozoon felis-like parasites were identified in 64.7% of BHNA, 36.8% of SHNA and 44.0% of SHTZ. Phylogenetic analysis placed the sequences outside the major H. felis cluster originating from wild and domestic felids. Filarioids were detected in 47.1% of BHNA, 47.4% of SHNA and 36.0% of SHTZ. Phylogenetic analysis revealed high genetic diversity and suggested the presence of several undescribed species. Co-infections were frequently detected in SHNA and BHNA (BHNA median 3 pathogens, range 1–4; SHNA median 3 pathogens, range 2–4) and significantly rarer in SHTZ (median 1, range 0–4, 9 individuals uninfected). Conclusions The frequencies of all pathogens groups were high, and except for Rickettsia, multiple species and genotypes were identified for each pathogen group. Ecological conditions explained pathogen identity and diversity better than host taxonomy. Graphic Abstract

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity of vector-borne pathogens in spotted and brown hyenas from Namibia and Tanzania relates to ecological conditions rather than host taxonomy

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In comparison to previous 'top-down' classifications of human-fire interactions, the quantitative signature of anthropogenic fire regimes found in these results are perhaps closest to the 'pyromes' approach of [21], who suggest that the anthropogenic footprint is principally to push diverse natural fire regimes towards a homogenous picture of many, cool and small fires. However, exceptions to this are found in widespread prescribed burning for biodiversity conservation (e.g., [107]), large-scale deforestation for commercial agriculture (e.g., [76]), as well as the potential for blanket fire suppression to contribute to the occurrence of megafires (e.g., [108]). This points to the underlying difficulty of categorising anthropogenic fire impacts without seeking to account for the multiple interacting social and ecological drivers that combine to produce observed fire patterns.…”

Section: Categorising Anthropogenic Fire Uses and Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Fire Use and Management: A Global Database of Anthropogenic Fire Impacts for Modelling

Millington

Perkins

Smith

2022

Fire

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human use and management of fire in landscapes have a long history and vary globally in purpose and impact. Existing local research on how people use and manage fire is fragmented across multiple disciplines and is diverse in methods of data collection and analysis. If progress is to be made on systematic understanding of human fire use and management globally, so that it might be better represented in dynamic global vegetation models, for example, we need improved synthesis of existing local research and literature. The database of anthropogenic fire impacts (DAFI) presented here is a response to this challenge. We use a conceptual framework that accounts for categorical differences in the land system and socio-economic context of human fire to structure a meta-study for developing the database. From the data collated, we find that our defined anthropogenic fire regimes have distinct quantitative signatures and identify seven main modes of fire use that account for 93% of fire instance records. We describe the underlying rationales of these seven modes of fire use, map their spatial distribution and summarise their quantitative characteristics, providing a new understanding that could become the basis of improved representation of anthropogenic fire in global process-based models. Our analysis highlights the generally small size of human fires (60% of DAFI records for mean size of deliberately started fires are <21 ha) and the need for continuing improvements in methods for observing small fires via remote sensing. Future efforts to model anthropogenic fire should avoid assuming that drivers are uniform globally and will be assisted by aligning remotely sensed data with field-based data and process understanding of human fire use and management.

show abstract

“…It is most commonly used for controlling ticks (Acari: Ixodidae), which may cause wildlife mortalities when excessively abundant (Trollope et al 2003). Numerous studies have validated this approach by demonstrating a decline in tick abundance for up to 3 years after a fire (Fyumagwa et al 2007;Goodenough et al 2017). Tick numbers not only are reduced by the actual fire but also remain low long after the fire because of less abundant grass (Trollope et al 2003).…”

Section: Control Disease Vectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of fire management practices in African savanna-protected areas

Nieman

Wilgen

Leslie

2021

Koedoe

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The level of understanding of the ecological effects of fires has improved over the past century, but comprehensive information on the practical application of fire remains restricted to a few well-studied areas, and management information is scattered. This article reviews the goals of fire management practices in African savanna-protected areas, and the approaches that have been adopted to achieve them. We identified 15 distinct fire management practices described in 107 papers from 19 African countries. Fire management has evolved in response to changing ecological understanding, as well as the shifting goals of protected areas. Currently, fire management practices can be divided into those that use fire to achieve specific ecological outcomes, those where fire is applied to promote diverse fire patterns across the landscape without necessarily having a specific ecological outcome in mind, and those that use fire to achieve specific, non-ecological or social goals. In larger, heterogeneous protected areas, fire management practices may vary at different sites in order to achieve a range of goals. We compared the effectiveness of each practice in terms of achieving 10 broad goals. These included ecological goals, for example, reversing woody and social goals (e.g. maintaining community relationships).Conservation implications: Fire management remains an important ecosystem process that can be manipulated to achieve particular goals in protected areas. The choice of a particular approach, or approaches, will depend on the circumstances pertaining to a particular protected area, and we provide examples of situations where each practice could be most appropriate.

show abstract

Managing grassland for wildlife: the effects of rotational burning on tick presence and abundance in African savannah habitat

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 12 publications

References 33 publications

Genetic diversity of vector-borne pathogens in spotted and brown hyenas from Namibia and Tanzania relates to ecological conditions rather than host taxonomy

Genetic diversity of vector-borne pathogens in spotted and brown hyenas from Namibia and Tanzania relates to ecological conditions rather than host taxonomy

Human Fire Use and Management: A Global Database of Anthropogenic Fire Impacts for Modelling

A review of fire management practices in African savanna-protected areas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About