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Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (hluhluwe-imfolozi + park)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

Patterns of elephant impact on woody plants in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi park, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Roger Patrick Boundja
Abstract This study identifies patterns of elephant Loxodonta africana africana impacts upon tree species and woody plant communities in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, a South African savannahs/woodlands area. Elephants were reintroduced there from 1981, following more than 80 years of absence. Data were collected in 2003 on elephant impact on woodland in the Park. Different vegetation types were susceptible to different types and levels of damage by elephants, suggesting that elephants will not homogenize the vegetation. Elephants targeted larger stems for all types of damage, with a strong preference for some of the less abundant species such as Albizia versicolor (breaking and toppling) and Cordia caffra and Schotia brachypetala (debarking). Elephant impacts tended to be distributed evenly across the park landscape, irrespective of stem density or proximity to permanent water. Overall, elephants have little impact on slowing or reversing the spread of undesirable woody species, but are having a marked impact on certain less common tree species and larger tree size-classes in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. Résumé Cette étude identifie le schéma des impacts des éléphants Loxodonta africana africana sur des espèces d'arbres et sur des communautés végétales du Parc de Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, une zone de forêts et de savanes d'Afrique du Sud. Des éléphants y furent réintroduits à partir de 1981, après une absence de plus de 80 ans. En 2003, on a récolté des données sur l'impact des éléphants sur les forêts du parc. ON a vu que les différents types de végétation étaient sensibles à des types et à des niveaux différents de dommages causés par les éléphants, ce qui laisse entendre que les éléphants ne vont pas uniformiser la végétation. Les éléphants visaient les plus gros troncs pour tous les types de dommages, avec une préférence marquée pour certaines des espèces les moins abondantes, comme Albizia versicolor (cassés et renversés) et Cordia caffra and Schotia brachypetala (écorcés). Les impacts des éléphants avaient tendance àêtre répartis également dans tout le paysage du parc, quelles que soient la densité des troncs ou la proximité de points d'eau permanents. En général, les éléphants avaient peu d'impact sur le ralentissement ou l'inversion de la dispersion des espèces ligneuses indésirables, mais ils ont un impact réel sur certaines espèces d'arbres moins fréquentes et sur les arbres de classes de taille plus grandes dans le Parc de Hluhluwe-Imfolozi. [source]

Population biology of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
Anna E. Jolles
First page of article [source]

Grazing and landscape controls on nitrogen availability across 330 South African savanna sites

AUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 7 2009
JOSEPH M. CRAINE
Abstract The availability of nitrogen (N) is an important determinant of ecosystem and community dynamics for grasslands and savannas, influencing factors such as biomass productivity, plant and herbivore composition, and losses of N to waters and the atmosphere. To better understand the controls over N availability at landscape to regional scales, we quantified a range of plant and soil characteristics at each of 330 sites in three regions of South Africa: Kruger National Park (KNP), private game reserves adjacent to KNP (private protected areas , PPAs) and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP). In comparing regions and sites within regions, grazing appeared to have a strong influence on N availability. Sites in the PPAs adjacent to KNP as well as sodic and alluvial sites in general typically had the highest N availability. The high N availability of these sites was not generally associated with greater potential N mineralization, but instead with less grass biomass and more forb biomass that indicated greater grazing pressure. Whereas sodic sites had a long history of high N availability as evidenced by their high soil ,15N, the greater N availability in the PPAs over the two parks appeared to be relatively recent. Grazer biomass, average potential mineralization rates and grass biomass for HiP were greater than KNP, yet there were no differences in N availability as indexed by soil and foliar ,15N between sites in the two parks. Although the short-term increase in N availability in PPAs is not necessarily deleterious, it is uncertain whether current productivity levels in those ecosystems is sustainable. With differences in management causing herbivore biomass to be 150% greater in the PPAs than the adjacent KNP, changes in plant communities and nitrogen cycling might lead to long-term degradation of these ecosystems, their ability to sustain herbivore populations, and also serve as an economic resource for the region. [source]