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 Numerical Assessments of Leaf Area Index in Tropical Savanna Rangelands, South Africa Using Landsat 8 OLI Derived Metrics and In-Situ Measurements

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Dube ◽  
Santa Pandit ◽  
Cletah Shoko ◽  
Abel Ramoelo ◽  
Dominic Mazvimavi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Leaf Area Index ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
National Park ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Tropical Savanna ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Area Index

Knowledge on rangeland condition, productivity patterns and possible thresholds of potential concern, as well as the escalation of risks in the face of climate change and variability over savanna grasslands is essential for wildlife/livestock management purposes. The estimation of leaf area index (LAI) in tropical savanna ecosystems is therefore fundamental for the proper planning and management of this natural capital. In this study, we assess the spatio-temporal seasonal LAI dynamics (dry and wet seasons) as a proxy for rangeland condition and productivity in the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. The 30 m Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) spectral bands, derived vegetation indices and a non-parametric approach (i.e., random forest, RF) were used to assess dry and wet season LAI condition and variability in the KNP. The results showed that RF optimization enhanced the model performance in estimating LAI. Moderately high accuracies were observed for the dry season (R2 of 0.63–0.72 and average RMSE of 0.60 m2/m2) and wet season (0.62–0.63 and 0.79 m2/m2). Derived thematic maps demonstrated that the park had high LAI estimates during the wet season when compared to the dry season. On average, LAI estimates ranged between 3 and 7 m2/m2 during the wet season, whereas for the dry season most parts of the park had LAI estimates ranging between 0.00 and 3.5 m2/m2. The findings indicate that Kruger National Park had high levels of productivity during the wet season monitoring period. Overall, this work shows the unique potential of Landsat 8-derived metrics in assessing LAI as a proxy for tropical savanna rangelands productivity. The result is relevant for wildlife management and habitat assessment and monitoring.

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 Overview of the fire management policy of the Kruger National Park

Koedoe ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
H.C. Biggs ◽  
A.L.F. Potgieter
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Fire Policy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Impact

New developments in fire management policy in the Kruger National Park are sketched against the background of changing attitudes towards ecosystem management. The experimental burning plots established in the mid-1950s are discussed briefly, as is the almost forty-year era of rotational block- burning. The lightning-driven fire policy initiated in 1992 and currently aimed at by park management is discussed, with comments on its early performance. More recent revision of the management plan stressed maximisation of appropriate research benefits from the experimental burning plots, con- doned the lightning approach for the present, but stressed the absolute necessity of the park not finding itself in the 1992 position again, where a major change in policy has to be made with no comparative evidence from other systems. To this end, a major landscape-scale fire management trial has been planned for implementation starting in April 2000. It is sheduled to run over a twenty-year period, and will be placed at four localities representing different major landscapes in the park. It will compare the effects of three different fire systems (lightning, patch mosaic, and range condition burning systems) on biodiversity elements crucial to the park's mission. The rationale for, layout of, and criteria for deciding on the outcome of the trial are discussed, as well as the trade-offs that were made to enable the trial to be of such a large scale and still fit into overall park planning. The impact of the trial on the park's monitoring programme is discussed.

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 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 Social and Seasonal Factors Contribute to Shifts in Male African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) Foraging and Activity Patterns in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3070
Author(s):  
Kara du du Plessis ◽  
Stefanie Birgit Ganswindt ◽  
Henk Bertschinger ◽  
Bruce Crossey ◽  
Michelle Deborah Henley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Loxodonta Africana ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Seasonal Factors

African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) are well-known as ecosystem engineers with the ability to modify vegetation structure. The present study aimed to examine how male elephant foraging behaviour is affected across (a) season (wet versus dry); (b) time of day (before or after noon); (c) presence or absence of other elephants; and (d) reproductive state (musth versus no musth). Six radio-collared adult elephant bulls were observed twice per week from June 2007–June 2008 in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. Using generalized linear mixed effect modeling, results indicate that elephant bulls graze more during the wet season and browse more during the dry season. To potentially offset the costs associated with thermoregulation during the heat of the day, KNP elephants spent more time foraging during the morning, and more time resting during the afternoon. Male elephants also foraged significantly less when they were associated with females compared to when they were alone or with other males. This is likely due to male–female associations formed mainly for reproductive purposes, thus impeding on male foraging behaviours. In contrast, the condition of musth, defined by the presence of related physical signs, had no significant effect on foraging behaviour.

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