Journal Article

Long-term monitoring reveals differing impacts of elephants on elements of a canopy shrub community

Kerley, Graham I H, Hall-Martin, Anthony J, Landman, Marietjie, Schoeman, David S

2014

Overview

The conservation management of southern Africa's elephants focuses on identifying and mitigating the extent and intensity of impacts on biological diversity. However, variation in the intensity of elephant effects between elements of biodiversity is seldom explored, which limits our ability to interpret the scale of the impacts. Our study quantifies >50 years of impacts in the succulent thickets of the Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa, contrasting hypotheses for the resilience of the canopy shrubs (a key functional guild) to elephants with those that argue the opposite. Our findings suggest that predicting elephant impacts, and finding solutions to the so-called \"elephant problem,\" require a broader and more integrated understanding of the mechanisms driving the changes between elements of biodiversity at various spatial and temporal scales.

• Subject: Elephantidae