Research Highlights - Kruger National Park
Savannas represent a substantial terrestrial carbon pool, support a diverse array of wildlife and provide livelihood to large human populations. Although savannas occupy approximately 20% of the global land surface, and are the dominant land cover type in Africa, they remain poorly understood systems as a result of their highly dynamic nature.
Researchers from Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology are working in collaboration with both the South African National Parks Board (SANParks) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to gain better understanding of ecological function and biodiversity within African savanna systems. The CAO was recently deployed to the Kruger National Park, South Africa, to undertake a pilot study on savanna structure, function, carbon storage and biodiversity. The success of flight campaign (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) represented a major milestone for both the CAO team and for savanna ecology. Firstly, the successful operation of the CAO, thousands of miles away from its base in Hawaii, was a testament to its fidelity and flexibility. Secondly, the collection of high resolution yet large extent data enables unprecedented exploration of ecological patterns and processes in savanna systems.
The Kruger National Park was selected as the core study area as it is one of the largest conservation areas in the world (over 2 million hectares) and is a leader in strategic adaptive management. Kruger managers recently adopted a heterogeneity paradigm and aim to “maintain biodiversity in all its facets and fluxes”. This progressive management goal is based on the assumptions that heterogeneity is the ultimate source of biodiversity (in terms of composition, structure and function), and that maintaining spatial and temporal variability in a system will satisfy the conservation mandate.
With CAO images, Carnegie’s researchers and their collaborators are exploring: (1) how geology, soils, and topography affect vegetation three-dimensional structure, biomass and biodiversity; (2) the linkages between vegetation composition, structure and ecological function; (3) linkages between vegetation three-dimensional structure and animal diversity and foraging patterns; and (4) the impact of fire and land-use on these relationships. This research comes at critical time in savanna conservation as managers are faced with the difficult and controversial tasks of managing herbivore population numbers (such as elephant), prescribing fire regimes, and managing pressure from neighboring communities which are growing at a rapid rate. See the publications section for research details.
Images, from top to bottom:
- Elephants are a major driver of ecosystem changes in African savanna.
- This CAO image shows giraffe in Kruger National Park.
- Savanna river zone in Kruger National Park.
- This CAO image shows a cross-sectional view of savanna vegetation in Kruger National Park.