The influence of desert-dwelling elephants on vegetation in the northern Namib Desert, South West Africa/Namibia

Viljoen, P. J.; Bothma, Jacobus du P.

doi:10.1016/s0140-1963(18)30874-7

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Morgan (1981: 104), Homewood & Hurst (1986: 6) and Barrow (1988: 7) for references to this practice among Kenyan pastoralists). The degree of branch removal or lopping for human use, identified by the occurrence of clean cut marks through the branches or main stem and clearly distinguishable from utilisation by desert‐dwelling elephants (as assessed by Viljoen & Bothma, 1990), was classified according to the following scale: 0, no branch removal; 1, slight branch removal, one to two large branches or only small branches removed; 2, moderate, 25–50% of branches removed; 3, severe, 50–75% of branches removed; 4, very severe, >75% of branches removed, often with a loss of plant height; 5, cut through the main stem/s so that the height of the plant is substantially reduced, but regrowth by coppicing is observed; 6, cut through the main stem and dead, i.e. no sign of coppicing.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impacts of people and livestock on topographically diverse open wood‐ and shrub‐lands in arid north‐west Namibia

Sullivan¹

1999

Global Ecology and Biogeography

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fears of degradation in this area relate more to ideology than evidence. In particular, it is argued 1. It is generally considered that the open that factors conferring resilience and persistence on woodlands of north-west Namibia are experiencing both the environment and the regional herding widespread degradation due to over-use of resources economy are obscured by: (1) disregard for the by local herders.implications of spatial and temporal scale in 2. Data are presented regarding community interpretations of ecological data; (2) a conceptual floristics, diversity, density, cover and population adherence to equilibrium dynamics that stresses structure for woody vegetation. These are analysed density-dependent impacts of people and livestock in relation to abiotic factors of topography and over and above the role of abiotic factors in substrate, and to settlement impacts represented constraining and driving primary productivity; and indirectly by distance from settlement and directly(3) remnants of a colonial ideology, which tends to by measures of branch cutting and browsing.view 'traditional communal farming' practices as 3. None of the vegetation indices upheld predicted environmentally degrading. patterns of degradation except on a small scale, confined to within settlements. Moreover, in nearly Key words. Open woodland degradation, desertification, pastoralism, policy, scale, biotic and all cases, local settlement effects were within the range of variability observed at larger scales. abiotic factors, traditional communal farming, Namibia. 4. It is concluded that continuing perceptions and Pokot and Turkana. ODI Social Forestry Network Paper, Group, Anthropology Dept, UCL, particularly Dan 6b. Brockington, Guy Cowlishaw, Alan Dangour, Hilda Behnke, R. (1993) Natural resource management in pastoral Kiwasila and Emmanuel de Merode, for discussion Africa. Paper presented to the UNEP workshop on and encouragement; to Rick Rohde, Pat Craven, Linda listening to the people: social aspects of dryland Baker and John Paterson for friendship and support in management, December 1993, Nairobi. Namibia; to Ruwenzori office services for a supportive A.B. (1990) Communal land use and the 'tragedy of the commons': some problems and development respectively. This paper was written with the further perspectives with specific reference to the semi-arid support of a British Academy Post-doctoral regions of Southern Africa. J. Grassld Soc. Sth. Afr. 7, Fellowship.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impacts of people and livestock on topographically diverse open wood‐ and shrub‐lands in arid north‐west Namibia

Sullivan¹

1999

Global Ecology and Biogeography

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“…Szaro and Jakle, 1985), elephants (e.g. Viljoen et al, 1990), as well as savanna chimpanzees (Kempf, 2009;Pruetz and Bertolani, 2009).…”

Section: Why Are Springs Ecological Keystones?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Springs, palm groves, and the record of early hominins in Africa

Barboni

Ashley

Bourel

et al. 2019

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

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Highlights• Groundwater systems locally create wet and wooded microhabitats in arid Eastern Africa.• But, how important are groundwater-fed microhabitats to the early hominin record?• Geological context, vegetation, and microfossils from modern springs were analyzed.• Fossil springs were found associated with hominin remains in >50 different localities.• Groundwater systems play essential roles at the species and ecosystem levels. AbstractHominins evolved in Africa during a period of overall regional cooling, drying and increasingly variable climate. Despite prevailing regional aridity since the mid-Miocene, data show that early hominins Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Orrorin tugenensis, and Ardipithecus ramidus lived in environments made of mosaics of grasslands, mixed grasslands, woodlands, and forests, where wooded habitats were maintained by edaphic rather than regional (climatic) humidity. Groundwater systems (springs, seeps, shallow aquifers) and surface water (rivers, lakes), locally create wetter and more wooded environments in addition to that supported by precipitation alone. However, edaphically sustained woodlands are rare to missing in most published paleoeclogical interpretations of hominin archeological sites. To explore the importance of groundwater to the record of hominins in Africa, we provide newly acquired field data from spring sites in the Awash Valley, Ethiopia, and Lake Eyasi-Lake Manyara region, Tanzania, and re-evaluate published data from the Ardipithecus-bearing Aramis Member, Ethiopia.Results show that 1) in arid Eastern Africa, a wide variety of microhabitats such as groundwaterfed wetlands, Hyphaene palm woodlands, Phoenix reclinata palm woodlands, and structurally complex and species-rich forest patches exist due to local variability of geologic, topographic and hydrologic conditions. 2) These microhabitats carry some characteristic pollen and phytolith signals, that may be easily masked by the signal of surrounding grass-dominated shrublands and grasslands. 3) The Aramis Member (Awash Valley, Ethiopia), which is to date, the best documented paleo-groundwater ecosystem, is not a riparian habitat. It is one of > 50 examples (within 22 geographically distinct areas) in Africa and the Middle East where evidence of groundwater systems co-exist with hominin and/or archeological remains. Springs are commonly localized features of limited area within a landscape, but provide ecological continuity through time and diverse microhabitats, some of which may be densely forested.At the local scale, springs create microclimates, distinctive vegetation, and increase soil nutrients, species richness, structural complexity, and provide habitat for animals. At the landscape scale, they represent hydro-refugia favoring increased connectivity among animals and allowing migrations during dry periods. We conclude that in the East African Rift where low, highly seasonal rainfall and high evaporative demand limit vegetation growth in many areas, groundwater-fed zones create diverse microhabitats and play a m...

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“…This ecotype is divided into two subpopulations: desert-dwelling elephants and semidesert-dwelling elephants; both are widely distributed throughout communal land and community conservancy. Desert-dwelling elephants roam freely within the ephemeral river basins of the Erongo and Kunene regions (the latter is in the northwest of the country and partially hosts our study area) and can be found below the 200 mm isohyet of each basin [28][29][30][31]. More specifically, the herds of this population include less than 250 elephants and are found at the lower catchments of major basins of the Ugab, Huab, Hoanib, Hoarusib, and Uniab Rivers.…”

Section: The Desert Elephantsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The study area is in the northwest part of the country, where the Ugab River basin (Figure 2A) is located, and where the maximum temperature exceeds 40 • C in the summer [29]. The Ugab River is one of the ephemeral rivers present in the interior of Namibia that characterises the country's aridness [67]; it has a catchment area of 28,000 km 2 , a length of over 540.0 km, and it flows east-to-west into the Atlantic Ocean.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change and Anthropogenic Factors Are Influencing the Loss of Habitats and Emerging Human–Elephant Conflict in the Namib Desert

Shiweda,

Shivute,

Sales

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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Climate change and anthropogenic factors’ impact on habitat loss is a growing problem that is influencing unsustainable wildlife local-population home range shifts and triggering an increase in human–wildlife conflict (HWC). Yet, keystone species involved in HWC such as elephants play a vital role in nature-based ecosystem services and have important economic and cultural value to the people that are living with them. To understand how climate change and anthropogenic factors affect habitat loss and elephants’ home range shift, the movement of Namib desert-dwelling elephants was monitored and observed in the Ugab River basin between February 2018 and November 2020 at fortnight intervals. There are 87 elephants in the Ugab River basin that are distributed into two subpopulations: desert-dwelling elephants (N = 28) and semi-desert-dwelling elephants (N = 59). To achieve the objective of the study, land cover change, elephant movement, rainfall, and temperature data were analysed using ArcGIS spatial and statistical tools, such as image analysis, optimised hot spot analysis (OHSA), and cost distance analysis, to distinguish habitat vegetation changes and home range shifts and how these link to emerging human–elephant conflict (HEC) hot spots. Human farming activities, poor rainfall, and frequent droughts are responsible for the loss of habitat of around 73.0% in the lower catchment of the ephemeral river streams; therefore, the urgency of conserving and sustaining these habitats and desert-dwelling elephants is discussed here.

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The influence of desert-dwelling elephants on vegetation in the northern Namib Desert, South West Africa/Namibia

Cited by 13 publications

References 12 publications

The impacts of people and livestock on topographically diverse open wood‐ and shrub‐lands in arid north‐west Namibia

The impacts of people and livestock on topographically diverse open wood‐ and shrub‐lands in arid north‐west Namibia

Springs, palm groves, and the record of early hominins in Africa

Climate Change and Anthropogenic Factors Are Influencing the Loss of Habitats and Emerging Human–Elephant Conflict in the Namib Desert

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