Savanna Science Network Meeting 2017
- Date: 12 March 2017 – 16 March 2017
- Location: Nombolo Mdhluli Conference Centre, Skukuza, Kruger National Park
The Savanna Science Network Meeting is the most important annual event for the SANParks Scientific Services Department. It provides an opportunity for SANParks to gauge how effective our research programmes are and also to assess the progress in meeting SANParks‘ objectives for biodiversity conservation. This meeting is intended to encourage researchers and prospective researchers to share ideas, their research findings and to provide a platform for dialogue between scientists. Scientific Services has a strong team of scientists working in different fields who, together with external scientists, conduct research in many topics. These include, for example, biodiversity monitoring, population studies, fire behaviour, vegetation monitoring and aerial game census techniques.
Programme
View/Download the SSMN 2017 Programme
Presentations
Monday – 13 March 2017
- Botha JM: Welcome
- Guerbois C: Times of crises highlight the multiple dimensions of services provided by Protected Areas and their role in socio-ecological resilience
- Fritz H: Village locations condition dependency on ‘provisioning’ ecosystem services for people living inside Niassa National Reserve (Mozambique)
- Bailey K: Adaptation to drought among smallholder farmers in a savannah landscape
- Swemmer L: The social and economic impact of the Kruger to Canyon Biosphere – Environmental Monitor Programme
- Annecke W: ‘It opened my mind to possibilities’: Learning and behaviour change among contractors in the BSP Cape Cluster
- Hofmeyr M: The SANParks Warburgia salutaris Conservation Programme: Interdisciplinary initiatives addressing extinction concerns
- Williams M: Challenges and opportunities in modelling savanna ecosystems
- February EC: Tree survival among grasses in savanna. A mechanistic understanding
- Stevens N: Hotter savannas: Is this a benefit for trees?
- Woodborne S: Climate reconstructions from trees give confidence in climate model skill, but are tall trees doomed?
- Te beest M: Climate-vegetation feedbacks in savannas and grasslands: how does vegetation affect albedo?
- Riddell E: Perennial Rivers During Drought in the KNP: Management Actions, Biotic Responders, and Co-learning
- Peel M: Consolidation of the wildlife estate: management challenges at differing spatial scales with special reference to drought
- Trisos M: Disturbing resource hotspots: drought impacts on vegetation and insect communities around termite mounds
- Smit I: Management plan 2017
- Baade J: Reservoir siltation and contemporary erosion in Kruger National Park
- Andersen A: Responses of ant communities to disturbance: a predictive understanding of a dominant savanna faunal group
- Sithole H: Ant diversity and composition at sites undergoing restoration and rehabilitation at Mountain Zebra and Mokala National Parks
- Hlongwane Z: Response of soil macroinvertebrates in different disturbances in the Sandstone Sourveld in Kwa Zulu-Natal
- Mwabvu T: Short-term changes in surface active non-volant soil macroinvertebrate assemblages in unburnt and burnt sandstone sourveld grassland
- Munyai C: An inventory of epigeal ants of the western Soutpansberg Mountain Range, South Africa
- Ferreira S: “Charming African mammals need policies other than CITES listings”
- Bond W: Savannas on the move: a conservation threat to our shrubby biomes?
- Lu M: The role of nutrients in the bi-stability of the Fynbos-forest system: A nutrient manipulation field experiment
- Hedin L: Evidence of bi-stability of the Fynbos-forest system: Observations and a dynamical fire-nutrient model
- Cardosa AW: How fire and forest elephants are affecting forest-savanna transitions in tropical Africa
Tuesday – 14 March 2017
- Kansky R: A review and synthesis of factors driving tolerance of people towards damage causing mammalian wildlife
- Isden J: Elephants for Africa, the social ecology of male elephants in a bull-dominated area, and implications for community based conservation
- Songhurst A: Land Use Planning at the Community-Elephant Interface”
- Richardson R: Remotely operated virtual fences: a successful new approach to baboon management
- Mabika C: The Current Status of HWC in Hwange Communal Area after 6 years
- Jolles A: Dynamics of foot-and-mouth disease in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer)
- Beechler B: Bovine Tuberculosis alters pathogen community structure in African Buffalo
- Sisson D: Subclinical infections of Anaplasma marginale and A. centrale in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) from Kruger National Park, South Africa
- Couch C: Serum chemistry panels as indicators of health: Establishing normal ranges for African Buffalo & assessing variability across season, age and sex
- Forsmann K: Linking animal personality and immune profiles and their roles in conservation
- Glidden C: Estimating acute pathogen exposure in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer)
- Pori T: Avian haemoparasite prevalence in Kruger national park, South Africa
- Schrama M: Understanding the anthropogenic and ecological pressures underlying the rapid spread of vector borne diseases
- Ryan C: Widespread degradation and boosted deforestation offset by extensive regrowth in African woodlands: a high-resolution sub-continental analysis based on radar and field data
- Schmullius C: A multi-sensor and multi-temporal approach to vegetation structure mapping – Results from the Ars AfricaE experiment at the Skukuza flux tower
- Case M: The complicated relationship between savanna tree cover and rainfall intensity across Africa
- Nippert J: A new paradigm for plant water uptake and use in grasslands and savannas
- Swemmer T: What do 60 years of fire trials tell us about changes to the woody layer of the Kruger National Park? Disentangling the effects of fire, elephants and CO2
- Attorre F: Disentangling the effect of management and environment on forest cover and structure of African savannas
- Loggins A: Small Mammal Communities Respond to Elephant-Induced Changes to Savanna Vegetation
- McCleery B: Conflicting effects of landscape heterogeneity on biodiversity in agricultural mosaics: a multi-scale and multi-taxon approach
- Cromsigt J: Conserving Africa’s Mega-Diversity in the Anthropocene: the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park Story
- Scholes B: The Enhanced Freshwater and Terrestrial Observation Network
- Ratnam J: Savannas of Asia: history, biogeography and management concerns
- Zambatis G: Interesting discoveries in some of the arid Parks
- Le Roex N: Le Roex N DNA from Dung: Non-Invasive Genetic Monitoring of Isolated Black Rhino Populations
- Marchal A: Age and sex identification from digital 3D models of lion tracks using geometric morphometrics
- Pienaar JJ: Atmospheric concentrations and dry and wet deposition estimates of nitrogen and sulphur in Kruger National Park
Wednesday – 15 March 2017
- Carruthers J: NATIONAL PARK SCIENCE: A CENTURY OF RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICA
- Hempson G: Ecological implications of distorted African herbivore communities
- Thompson D: Changes in dominance drive global variation in herbivore effects on savanna grassland diversity
- Dabengwa A: Millennial-scale climate variability and herbivore interaction in the development of shortgrass patches in a wetland key resource area at Hluhluwe Umfolozi Reserve, South Africa
- Shrader A: Grass features governing seasonal shifts between grassland types by white rhinos in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park
- Voysey M: Do grazing lawns attract browsers?
- Wigley B: Browser effects on woody plant traits and growth in an East African savanna
- Mudzengi C: Screening key browse species in a semi-arid rangeland
- Scogings P: Responses of Sclerocarya birrea saplings to 6 intensities of simulated browsing
- Chamaillé-Jammes S: Revealing a partial migration in the Hwange elephant population
- Kiker G: Landscapes, multi-agents and massive agents: a comparison of Kruger Park elephant distribution and vegetation impact as simulated by the SAVANNA, QnD and MARS models
- Henley M: Examining Human Perception of Elephants and Large Trees for Insights into Conservation of an African Savanna Ecosystem
- Cook R: African honeybees as a mitigation method for elephant impact on marula trees in the Greater Kruger National Park
- Ransom C: Contrasting elephants and humans as agents of disturbance in Miombo woodlands
- Combrink-Cilliers A: Elephant versus mesobrowser effects on savanna woodland regeneration
- Davies A: Megafaunal effects on vegetation structure throughout the densely wooded Addo landscape
- Linden H: The Impacts of Fence Removal on Vegetation Dynamics within the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve, South Africa
- Palmer T: Empowering catchment management forums as institutions for deepening democratic natural resource management, colearning and participatory governance
- Stirzaker R: Maximising benefits in the buffer zone: water stewardship and co-learning opportunities in an integrated agro-ecological land use system around protected areas
- Kruger F: Time and the river: approaching a socio-hydrological history of the Sabie catchment
- Lerm R: Almost a decade of waterbird monitoring on the Olifants River, Kruger NP
- Holland A: Macroinvertebrate diversity survey along selected rivers of the Kruger National Park
- February E: Effects of groundwater abstraction on trees in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
- Strydom T: The use of geophysics in understanding groundwater dynamics along the Letaba River
- Petersen R: Hydrological dynamics in Mapungubwe National Park
Thursday – 16 March 2017
- Skhosana F: Community, functional, and ecosystem responses to combined high fire and grazing pressure in a Highveld Grassland
- Smit I: Herbivore culling fuels veld fires: Evidence for direct impacts of herbivore densities on fire patterns in a large protected savanna
- Alvarado ST: Assessment of management impact on fire occurrence: Comparison of fire regime of tropical savannas in protected areas
- Humphrey G: ’Fire Intensity: exploring FRP estimates between human fires and the savanna – woodlands in north-east Namibia”
- Pellegrini A: Meta-analysis reveals large long-term effects of fire on soil carbon and nutrients in savanna ecosystems
- Nieto Quintano P: Investigating the effect of fire dynamics on aboveground carbon storage in the Bateke landscape, Congo
- Scholtz R: Social and ecological challenges in understanding fire dynamics and woodland expansion in the Great Plains, USA
- Fidelis A: Flowering after fire in the Cerrado: an example of Bulbustylis paradoxa
- Le roux E: Fear-triggered trophic cascades in a megaherbivore dominated system
- Everatt K: Landscape scale occupancy of lions in the Greater Limpopo Lion Conservation Unit; What limits lions in human-disturbed systems?
- Wahyudi HA: Population density and habitat preference of Javan leopard in savanna ecosystem in Baluran National Park, Indonesia
- Chidakel A: Institutions, Governance, and the Economic Performance of Protected Areas in Southern Africa
- Douglas A: Understanding sustainable tourism development and responsible tourism practices in the Kruger National Park: measuring visitor perceptions and experiences against sustainability assessment outcomes
- Foxcroft L: Biological invasions in South African National Parks
- Sibiya T: Patterns of alien plant invasion within geomorphic features of the Sabie River, Kruger National Park
- Damasceno G: When should we burn to control invasive species? An example from Cerrado
- Archibald S: Leaf display strategies across savannas
- Whitecross M: Early-greening linked to herbivory avoidance, not longer growing seasons for two savanna trees
- Teegalapalli K: Linking tree growth rates and functional traits in savannas
- Greve M: An investigation of seed size variation across southern Africa: patterns and drivers
- Wrap Up: Norman Owen-Smith
- Closing and thanks: Izak Smit