干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Large herbivores maintain a two-phase herbaceous vegetation mosaic in a semi-arid savanna

Arid

DOI	10.1002/ece3.5750
	Large herbivores maintain a two-phase herbaceous vegetation mosaic in a semi-arid savanna
	Augustine, David J.1; Wigley, Benjamin J.2,3; Ratnam, Jayashree 2; Kibet, Staline 4; Nyangito, Moses 4; Sankaran, Mahesh 2,5
通讯作者	Augustine, David J.
来源期刊	ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
ISSN	2045-7758
出版年	2019
卷号	9 期号:22 页码:12779-12788
英文摘要	Many arid and semi-arid rangelands exhibit distinct spatial patterning of vegetated and bare soil-dominated patches. The latter potentially represent a grazing-induced, degraded ecosystem state, but could also arise via mechanisms related to feedbacks between vegetation cover and soil moisture availability that are unrelated to grazing. The degree to which grazing contributes to the formation or maintenance of degraded patches has been widely discussed and modeled, but empirical studies of the role of grazing in their formation, persistence, and reversibility are limited. We report on a long-term (17 years) grazing removal experiment in a semi-arid savanna where vegetated patches composed of perennial grasses were interspersed within large (>10 m(2)) patches of bare soil. Short-term (3 years) grazing removal did not allow bare patches to become revegetated, whereas following long-term (17 years) grazing removal, bare soil patches were revegetated by a combination of stoloniferous grasses and tufted bunchgrasses. In the presence of grazers, stoloniferous grasses partially recolonized bare patches, but this did not lead to full recovery or to the establishment of tufted bunchgrasses. These results show that grazers alter both the balance between bare and vegetated patches, as well as the types of grasses dominating both patch types in this semiarid savanna. Synthesis: Large herbivores fundamentally shaped the composition and spatial pattern of the herbaceous layer by maintaining a two-phase herbaceous mosaic. However, bare patches within this mosaic can recover given herbivore removal over sufficiently long time scales, and hence do not represent a permanently degraded ecosystem state.
英文关键词	alternative stable states equilibrium versus nonequilibrium dynamics grazing management reversible degradation vegetation collapse vegetation patch dynamics
类型	Article
语种	英语
国家	USA ; India ; South Africa ; Kenya ; England
开放获取类型	gold, Green Published
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000494158100001
WOS关键词	SPATIAL HETEROGENEITY ; PATCH STRUCTURE ; SOIL ; DYNAMICS ; RESTORATION ; ECOSYSTEM ; RAINFALL ; DESERTIFICATION ; DEGRADATION ; MANAGEMENT
WOS类目	Ecology ; Evolutionary Biology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Evolutionary Biology
EI主题词	2019-10-22
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/310330
作者单位	1.USDA ARS, Rangeland Resources & Syst Res Unit, 1701 Ctr Ave, Ft Collins, CO 80526 USA; 2.Tata Inst Fundamental Res, Natl Ctr Biol Sci, Bangalore, Karnataka, India; 3.Nelson Mandela Univ, Sch Nat Resource Management, George Campus, George, South Africa; 4.Univ Nairobi, Dept Resource Management & Agr Technol, Nairobi, Kenya; 5.Univ Leeds, Sch Biol, Fac Biol Sci, Leeds, W Yorkshire, England
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Augustine, David J.,Wigley, Benjamin J.,Ratnam, Jayashree,et al. Large herbivores maintain a two-phase herbaceous vegetation mosaic in a semi-arid savanna[J],2019,9(22):12779-12788.
APA	Augustine, David J.,Wigley, Benjamin J.,Ratnam, Jayashree,Kibet, Staline,Nyangito, Moses,&Sankaran, Mahesh.(2019).Large herbivores maintain a two-phase herbaceous vegetation mosaic in a semi-arid savanna.ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION,9(22),12779-12788.
MLA	Augustine, David J.,et al."Large herbivores maintain a two-phase herbaceous vegetation mosaic in a semi-arid savanna".ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 9.22(2019):12779-12788.