Savanna Science Network Meeting 2016
- Date: 13 March 2016 – 17 March 2016
- 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 2016 Programme
Presentations
Monday – 14 March 2016
- Botha JM: Welcome and Housekeeping
- Gilson L: Is scenario planning useful in an uncertain, complex world?
- Nortje K, Claassen M & Veeravalli S: Developing adaptive capacity metrics within the context of climate change: Understanding the relationship between human security and environmental security
- Fathoni IT, Arinal I & Traeholt C: Savannahs in peril: Indonesia’s forgotten biodiversity treasure”
- Tomlinson K: Savanna in Asia: diversity, conservation and future research
- Bland L M, Nicholson E M, Regan T J & Keith D A: Assessing savannas with the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems
- Stevens N,Lehmann CER, Murphy BP & Durigan G: Savanna woody encroachment is ubiquitous across three continents
- February EC: Tree survival among grasses in savanna. A mechanistic understanding
- Holdo RM, Nippert JB & Mack MC: Tree-grass soil moisture partitioning across the Kruger rainfall gradient
- Charles-Dominique T, Midgley GF & Bond WJ: Environmental barriers between biomes in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi
- Makin D, Chamaillé-Jammes S & Shrader AM: Kudu, sable and warthog adjust their small-scale foraging patterns and not large-scale habitat use in response to the introduction of wild dogs
- Beets W, Matthews WS, Somers MJ & Naylor S: Managing African Wild Dog in Small Reserves – The Painted Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
- Marneweck DG, Druce DJ, Marnewick K & Somers MJ: The effect of wild dogs and rainfall on herbivores in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa
- Pirie TJ, Thomas RL & Fellowes MDE: Can small commercial reserves contribute to Leopard conservation in South Africa?
- Yiu SW, Parrini F, Karczmarski L & Keith M: How to move around and where to settle: environmental determinants of spatial behaviour in reintroduced lions (Panthera leo)
- Borrego NB & Packer CP: Population dynamics of nomadic male lions (Panthera leo) in Serengeti National Park
- Mills G: Do cheetahs prefer grassy plains or sandy deserts?
- Poshiwa X, Heitkönig I, Morris C, Kirkman K et al: The effect of land use on the vegetation composition in the lowveld of Zimbabwe
- Emslie KW, Hunicutt A, Loock DMW, Naylor S et al: Carnivore diversity comparisons between protected areas in the savanna biome and an industrial area in the grassland biome using camera trap surveys
- Lerm R & Swemmer AT: Mine dump rehabilitation on the boundary of Kruger National Park: effectiveness in re?establishing bird communities
- Foxcroft LC, Novoa A, Le Roux JJ & Herbst M: Impacts of Opuntia stricta on biodiversity, ecosystem function and social perceptions in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Tuesday – 15 March 2016
- Chan SCY, Karczmarski L & Gailey G: DISCOVERY: A Photo-Identification Data Management System
- Coetsee C: Vegetation change in Kruger National Park through photographer’s lenses
- Moore S, Kruger F: A “timeless, pristine landscape”? Evidence for secular landscape change in the southern Kruger National Park from repeat photographys
- Davies H, Murphy B, Gillespie G & Andersen A: Paradise lost: Are the mammals of northern Australia’s Tiwi Islands in decline?
- Combrink L, Combrink HJ, Botha AJ & Downs CT: Long-term monitoring of an Endangered Bird – what have Kruger’s Southern Ground-hornbills taught us
- Oberprieler S: Herbivore effects on woody species diversity and structure
- Schmullius C, Baade J, Berger C, Hüttich C et al: A multi-sensor and multi-temporal approach to vegetation structure mapping – Results from the Ars AfricaE experiment at the Skukuza flux tower
- Baade J & Schmullius C: First high resolution vegetation structure survey at the Skukuza flux tower using TLS
- Palmer T: ET MODIS – a parsimonious evapotranspiration model for the Albany Thicket and Grassland biomes
- van Wilgen BW, Boshoff N, Smit IPJ, Solano-Fernandez S et al: Knowledge flows from South African National Parks: A bibliometric analysis of research publications emanating from SANParks between 2003-2013
- Mc Culloch S, Roux D & Fabricius C: Absorptive capacity for responding to environmental change: A comparative assessment of three public-sector agencies
- Dickson K: Making time for Tea: Conservation Agencies as Learning Organisations
- Lehmann CER, Cabrelli A, Dexter K & Pennington RT: All legumes are not equal: understanding legume dominance across tropical savannas
- Siebert F & Dreber N: A systematic review of forbs in dryland ecosystem research
- Bond W, Zaloumis N & Uys R: What the forb flora tells us about the ecology of South Africa’s grassy biomes
- Lewis JR, February EC, & Verboom GA: The story of the African Acacias – insights from a holistic ecophylogenetic approach
- Smithwick EAH, Baldwin DC & Naithani KJ: Quantifying spatial patterns in grassland response to nutrient additions
- Trisos M, Parr K, Picker M & February EC: Water additions in a Kruger savanna result in cascading effects on biodiversity
- Swemmer LK: Biodiversity for Society: the benefits and costs of protected areas – A focus on the Kruger National Park
- Michler L & Treydte AC: Top or flop? – A socio-ecological study on natural resource use by pastoralists in and around the Richtersveld National Park, South Africa
- Twine W, Hunter L, Collinson M & Erasmus B: Linkages between food security, livelihood shocks, and natural resource use: insights from a longitudinal study in a savanna socio-ecological system
- Beck SM, Bunn DN, Cadenasso ML, Childers D et al : The Ecosystem Service Potential of Urbanizing South Africa: An Urban Ecological Approach
- Annecke W ,Russel I & Vermeulen W: Politics, philosophy, demography, ecology: The dilemmas of social science in a natural science environment
- Smidt E: Rethinking the war on poaching: Crisis conservation and the intersection of capitalism, meaning and militarization
- Ferreira SM: Poacher predator paybacks
- Richardson PRK, Conradie C, Olivier P, Khoury RE et al: Virtual Fencing as a New Strategy for Managing Baboons
Wednesday – 16 March 2016
- van Langevelde F, Groen TA, Heitkönig IMA, Govender N et al: Feedbacks between fire and patches of woody vegetation in tropical grasslands and savannas
- Beckett H & Bond W: Hysteresis, resilience and recovery in Forest and Thicket patches following a Firestorm
- Kruger L, Lindokuhle I,Boyer J,Smit IPJ et al: The ghost of trees past: the effects of increased fire intensity on overstorey-understorey interactions in the Kruger National Park
- Alvarado ST, Silva TSF & Morellato LPC: Dynamics of vegetation recovery after fire on Brazilian montane grasslands
- Freeman ME, Murphy BP, Cook GD, Vesk PA et al: Mechanisms for success in savannas: growth strategies of frequently burnt juvenile trees
- Case MF & Staver CA: Fire limits generalized woody encroachment in a South African savanna
- Andersen AN, Edwards A & Williams D: Variation in savanna fire regimes along a 1500 mm rainfall gradient in northern Australia
- Fidelis A, Souza EB, Rissi MN, GorgoneBarbosa E et al: Fire heterogeneity in Cerrado: fine-scale pattern of vertical and horizontal temperatures
- Humphrey GJ, Gillson L & Ziervogel G: ‘Tracking fire in the conduit of the western Caprivi: 19th – 21st century”
- Parr C, Archibald S, Hempson G, Donaldson J et al: How do fire-grazer interactions differ in contrasting African systems?
- Palmer CG: Transdisciplinary action research on Integrated Water Resource Management: implications for the river catchments within the Kruger National Park
- Shifflett SD, Beck SM, Cluett C, Litzenberger TH,McHale MR et al: Water Realities: a social-ecological assessment of community-scale water resources on the border of Kruger National Park
- Swemmer A, Mohlala T, Marr S, Pietersen R et al: Are contemporary monitoring methods able to detect expected losses of aquatic biodiversity? Insights from the analysis of 6 years of river health data from the Lower Olifants River
- Deacon AR & Kotze PJ: Freshwater Fish of the Kruger National Park : 50 YEARS OF MONITORING
- Mohlala TD, Erasmus BFN & Swemmer AM: Impact of global climate change on freshwater fish communities. A case study of flood disturbance in the Klaserie River, Limpopo province
- Evans M, KnightJ & Cunningham AC: River flow patterns and flood dynamics of the Sabie River using luminescence partial bleaching
- Mugwabana T, Knight J & Evans M: Sediment patterns of the Letaba River, Kruger National Park
- de Garine-Wichatitsky M, Caron A, Valls H, Perroton M et al: Buffalo, cattle and their interactions at the edge of transfrontier conservation areas: synthesis of research carried out 2008-2015 in Hwange NP, Gonarezhou NP and their peripheries (Zimbabwe)
- Perrotton A, Le Page C & de Garine-Wichatitsky M: Tackling issues of coexistence between protected areas and communal lands: Using Role playing games and participatory modeling to understand cattle herding strategies at the edge of a protected area
- Kaszta ?, Marino J, Wolff E, Sillero-Zubiri C et al: African buffalo and cattle fine-scale contact risk modelling in the foot-and-month diseases control zone based on cumulative resistant kernel
- Mercat M, Ruppe E, Clermont O, de Garine-Wichatitsky M et al: Escherichia coli populations sharing and antibioresistance gradient at a buffalo/cattle interface in southern Africa
- Van Hooft P, Greyling B, Oberem Peter, Louw R et al: A new genetic-based strategy for obtaining BTB-resistant African buffalo: breeding on basis of body-conditionassociated microsatellite marker alleles
- Marneweck C J, Jürgens A & Shrader A M: Cracking the code of white rhino olfactory communication
Thursday – 17 March 2016
- Owen-Smith N: Why are there so few wildebeest in Kruger Park?
- Traill LW, Martin J & Owen-Smith N: Nocturnal activity of blue wildebeest; predation, foraging and moon phase
- D’Ammando G, Marshal JP & Parrini F: Nomads on an island: resource selection by common eland in a fenced reserve
- Valls Fox H, Fritz H, De GarineWichatitsky M & Chamaillé-Jammes S: The further from water the better: Does forage depletion override landscape complementation in elephant’s selection of foraging locations
- Selier SAJ, Page BR, Slotow R & Di Minin E: Elephant distribution in a transfrontier conservation landscape: trade-offs between resource availability and human disturbance
- Schmitt MH, Ward D & Shrader AM: The smell of secondary compounds drives elephant foraging decisions
- Shrader AM & Stears K: How does Africa’s smallest pure grazing antelope survive the dry season?
- Patel T, Little IT, Stears K & Shrader AM: Have relocations been a successful management tool for the conservation of oribi antelope in KwaZulu-Natal
- Stears K & Shrader AM: The influence of season and stocking rate on the nature of interspecific interactions between cattle and oribi
- Davies AB, Marneweck D, Druce DJ & Asner GP: Density and fitness-based indicators of den site quality for endangered African wild dogs
- Hempson GP, Archibald S & Parr CL: Grass community responses to frequent grazing across broad rainfall-soil gradients
- Archibald S, Parr C, Pollard D & Govender N: Transitions from black-world to brown-world in a semi-arid savanna in the KNP
- Grant RCC , Grant TC, Simms C & Peel MJ: Herbivore utilization of the Kruger savanna landscape with emphasis on the small scale pattern of utilization by grazers”
- Grant TC, Grant RCC, Pretorius Y & Van Niekerk WA: A Benefit for KNP-Ecologists- Massive Multi-Agent Simulation with MARS
- Arcoverde G B, Andersen AN & Setterfield S: Grazing Impacts on Savanna ant communities in the Australian tropics
- Robson AS, Purdon A, Trimble MJ, Van Aarde RJ et al: How many elephants should there be in the Kruger National Park?
- McCleery RA, Monadjem A, Kruger L & Vickers K: SANParks Research Needs: Social
- Sianga K, Vrooman J, Van Telgen M, Fynn RWS et al: Effects of a massive African elephant Loxodonta africana population on plant diversity, composition and structure: a test of the plant refugia hypothesis in the Savuti-Mababe-Linyanti Ecosystem northern Botswana
- Lochner CS, Landman M & Kerley GIH: Does expanding the range available to elephant reduce their impact in the succulent thickets of the Addo Elephant National Park?
- Lubbe B, Fairer-Wessels F, Douglas A & Kruger E: Wildlife as a determinant indicator of South Africa’s tourism destination competitiveness
- Barendse J, Roux D, Erfmann W, Baard J et al: Viewshed and sense of place as conservation features
- Di Minin E, Tenkanen H, Slotow R, Hausmann A et al: Prospects and challenges for social media data in conservation science
- S Archibald: Wrap Up