干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Hippopotamus and livestock grazing near water points: consequences for vegetation cover, plant species richness and composition in African savannas

Arid

DOI	10.3389/fevo.2023.1161079
	Hippopotamus and livestock grazing near water points: consequences for vegetation cover, plant species richness and composition in African savannas
	Kanga, Erustus M.; Ogutu, Joseph O.; Piepho, Hans-Peter; Olff, Han
通讯作者	Ogutu, JO
来源期刊	FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
ISSN	2296-701X
出版年	2023
卷号	11
英文摘要	Large mammals, such as hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibius), can significantly alter the landscape, vegetation composition, and structure in savannas through their grazing habits and ecosystem engineering effects, especially around rivers. However, livestock grazing can strongly change these effects, as seen in the Kenyan Maasai Mara Ecosystem. In this region, the increasing intensity of livestock grazing along local rivers, resulting from the transition of Maasai pastoralists from a semi-nomadic lifestyle to one based on pastoral ranches near the Maasai Mara National Reserve, may alter the impact of hippo grazing on riparian vegetation. We investigated the differences in vegetation structure, plant species richness and composition between landscapes predominantly grazed by hippopotami and livestock. We studied 25 transects, each measuring 5 km and having 13 sampling plots of 10 x 10 m2 located at varying distances from rivers in the reserve (n = 16) and pastoral ranches (n = 9). We measured the height and estimated the percent cover of grasses, forbs, shrubs, and bare ground, as well as plant species composition and richness and grazing intensity. Our results show that the riverine areas were more intensely and homogeneously grazed in the pastoral ranches than in the reserve, and in the dry than in the wet season in both landscapes. In addition, grazing intensity decreased with distance from rivers in the reserve in both seasons, but only in the wet season in the pastoral ranches. The mean plant species richness was similar in both landscapes and decreased linearly with distance from rivers, but varied with grazing intensity due to differences in forb and shrub species. However, plant species composition differed significantly between the reserve and the pastoral ranches. Furthermore, species similarity indices declined with increasing distance from water. These results suggest that the effects of livestock and hippo grazing intensity on vegetation structure and spatial heterogeneity interact, and vary with landscape and season. While both hippopotamus and livestock grazing can modify riparian vegetation, livestock grazing impact on plant species composition, vegetation structure, and spatial heterogeneity appears to be more persistent, declining less rapidly with increasing distance from water. Consequently, hippo and livestock differentially impact landscape heterogeneity.
英文关键词	grazing intensity hippo grazing pastoral livestock grazing distance from water protected and human-dominated pastoral landscapes spatial heterogeneity rainfall seasonality Serengeti-Mara ecosystem
类型	Article
语种	英语
开放获取类型	gold, Green Published
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:001087387600001
WOS关键词	LARGE HERBIVORE RESPONSES ; LAND-USE ; MARA REGION ; ARID-ZONE ; IMPACT ; DIVERSITY ; ECOSYSTEM ; CONSERVATION ; PRODUCTIVITY ; BIODIVERSITY
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/396502
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Kanga, Erustus M.,Ogutu, Joseph O.,Piepho, Hans-Peter,et al. Hippopotamus and livestock grazing near water points: consequences for vegetation cover, plant species richness and composition in African savannas[J],2023,11.
APA	Kanga, Erustus M.,Ogutu, Joseph O.,Piepho, Hans-Peter,&Olff, Han.(2023).Hippopotamus and livestock grazing near water points: consequences for vegetation cover, plant species richness and composition in African savannas.FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION,11.
MLA	Kanga, Erustus M.,et al."Hippopotamus and livestock grazing near water points: consequences for vegetation cover, plant species richness and composition in African savannas".FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 11(2023).