4.8 Article

Elephants limit aboveground carbon gains in African savannas

期刊

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
卷 25, 期 4, 页码 1368-1382

出版社

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14585

关键词

aboveground carbon density; carbon cycling; Carnegie Airborne Observatory; herbivory; Kruger National Park; LiDAR; megaherbivore; South Africa; woody encroachment

资金

  1. Margaret A. Cargill Foundation
  2. W. M. Keck Foundation
  3. Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
  4. David and Lucile Packard Foundation
  5. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
  6. Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  7. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  8. Avatar Alliance Foundation

向作者/读者索取更多资源

Understanding the drivers of vegetation carbon dynamics is essential for climate change mitigation and effective policy formulation. However, most efforts focus on abiotic drivers of plant biomass change, with little consideration for functional roles performed by animals, particularly at landscape scales. We combined repeat airborne Light Detection and Ranging with measurements of elephant densities, abiotic factors, and exclusion experiments to determine the relative importance of drivers of change in aboveground woody vegetation carbon stocks in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Despite a growing elephant population, aboveground carbon density (ACD) increased across most of the landscape over the 6-year study period, but at fine scales, bull elephant density was the most important factor determining carbon stock change, with ACD losses recorded only where bull densities exceeded 0.5 bulls/km(2). Effects of bull elephants were, however, spatially restricted and landscape dependent, being especially pronounced along rivers, at mid-elevations, and on steeper slopes. In contrast, elephant herds and abiotic drivers had a comparatively small influence on the direction or magnitude of carbon stock change. Our findings demonstrate that animals can have a substantive influence on regional-scale carbon dynamics and warrant consideration in carbon cycling models and policy formulation aimed at carbon management and climate change mitigation.

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