scholarly journals Long-term rainfall regression surfaces for the Kruger National Park, South Africa: a spatio-temporal review of patterns from 1981 to 2015

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 2506-2519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra MacFadyen ◽  
Nick Zambatis ◽  
Astrid J. A. Van Teeffelen ◽  
Cang Hui
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Spatio Temporal

scholarly journals The contribution of fire research to fire management: a critical review of a long-term experiment in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian W. van Wilgen ◽  
Navashni Govender ◽  
Harry C. Biggs
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Long Term Experiment ◽  
Faunal Communities

The present paper reviews a long-term fire experiment in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, established in 1954 to support fire management. The paper’s goals are: (1) to assess learning, with a focus on relevance for fire management; (2) to examine how findings influenced changes in fire management; and (3) to reflect on the experiment’s future. Results show that fire treatments affected vegetation structure and biomass more than species composition. Effects on vegetation were most marked in extreme treatments (annual burning, burning in the summer wet season, or long periods of fire exclusion), and were greater in areas of higher rainfall. Faunal communities and soil physiology were largely unaffected by fire. Since the inception of the experiment, paradigms in savanna ecology have changed to encompass heterogeneity and variability. The design of the experiment, reflecting the understanding of the 1950s, does not cater for variability, and as a result, the experiment had little direct influence on changes in management policy. Notwithstanding this, managers accept that basic research influences the understanding of fundamental ecosystem function, and they recognise that it promotes appropriate adaptive management by contributing to predictive understanding. This has been a major reason for maintaining the experiment for over 50 years.

scholarly journals Seven decades of institutional learning: managing alien plant invasions in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Oryx ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Llewellyn C. Foxcroft ◽  
Stefanie Freitag-Ronaldson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Current Control ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Plant Management ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Alien Plant ◽  
Invasive Plant Management

AbstractLong-term ecological and economic sustainability will ultimately determine the outcome of any conservation management programme. Invasive alien plants, first recorded in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, in 1937, are now recognized as one of the greatest threats to the biodiversity of this Park. Such plants have been managed in the Park since 1956, with control advancing mainly through a process of trial and error. Refinement of invasive plant management strategies has resulted in an understanding of the target plants' biology and ecology, herbicide use and herbicide-plant interactions, as well as the plant-insect interactions of biological control. Careful integration of different control methods has proved essential to ensure the most appropriate use of techniques to deliver the best possible results from the resources available and achieve long-term sustainability. We outline the development of control efforts and current control programmes and the process of their incorporation into the institutional memory of Kruger National Park over the last 7 decades.

scholarly journals Long-term effects of fire frequency and season on herbaceous vegetation in savannas of the Kruger National Park, South Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda D. Smith ◽  
Brian W. van Wilgen ◽  
Catherine E. Burns ◽  
Navashni Govender ◽  
Andre L. F. Potgieter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Herbaceous Vegetation

scholarly journals Online appendix 1:A geomorphic and soil description of the long-term fire experiment in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Koedoe ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik J. Venter ◽  
Navashni Govender
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Online Appendix ◽  
Soil Variation ◽  
Fire Experiments

In 1954, the experimental burning programme into fire research was initiated in the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. It is viewed as one of the last remaining long- term landscape fire experiments in Africa. Throughout the more than five decades of fire treatments in the experiment, numerous surveys (expanding various spatial and temporal scales), research projects (covering biotic and abiotic components) and analyses have been conducted with the aim to assess the impacts of different fire regimes on the savannah biome. The design of the experiment intended to test the effect of season and frequency of burning on vegetation within four major landscapes in the KNP. However, these effects have been partly obscured by factors not fully taken into account by the experimental design, namely, herbivory, artificial water provision and soil variation. Soil variation between replicates in the same landscape, as well as within individual replicates, has raised the issue of the representivity of the trial. This paper provided a description and ranking of the experimental burning trial according to the geomorphic and soil characteristics of each plot in comparison to the surrounding landscape.Conservation implications: The KNP burn plots are one of the largest and longest-running fire experiments on fire ecology in African savannahs. However, studies need to consider the underlying geomorphic and soil template when designing experiments and interpreting results. This work describes the representivity of the plots across, and within, treatments.

scholarly journals A geomorphic and soil description of the long-term fire experiment in the Kruger National Park, South Africa

Koedoe ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik J. Venter ◽  
Navashni Govender
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Soil Variation ◽  
Water Provision ◽  
Fire Experiments

In 1954, the experimental burning programme into fire research was initiated in the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. It is viewed as one of the last remaining long- term landscape fire experiments in Africa. Throughout the more than five decades of fire treatments in the experiment, numerous surveys (expanding various spatial and temporal scales), research projects (covering biotic and abiotic components) and analyses have been conducted with the aim to assess the impacts of different fire regimes on the savannah biome. The design of the experiment intended to test the effect of season and frequency of burning on vegetation within four major landscapes in the KNP. However, these effects have been partly obscured by factors not fully taken into account by the experimental design, namely, herbivory, artificial water provision and soil variation. Soil variation between replicates in the same landscape, as well as within individual replicates, has raised the issue of the representivity of the trial. This paper provided a description and ranking of the experimental burning trial according to the geomorphic and soil characteristics of each plot in comparison to the surrounding landscape.Conservation implications: The KNP burn plots are one of the largest and longest-running fire experiments on fire ecology in African savannahs. However, studies need to consider the underlying geomorphic and soil template when designing experiments and interpreting results. This work describes the representivity of the plots across, and within, treatments.

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