Savanna Science Network Meeting 2020
- Date: 01 March 2020 – 05 March 2020
- 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 2020 Programme
Presentations
- Benjamin Wigley: Grasses trump trees at soil carbon sequestration following herbivore exclusion in semi-arid savanna
- Johna Turner: Observing the dynamics of a wetland system in an arid savanna: The pans of the Makuleke Ramsar Wetlands
- Lochran Traill: On the use of functional traits to construct a generalised herbivore model
- Lydia Tiller: Using elephant tracking data to understand and mitigate human-elephant conflict in Kenya
- Mariska te Beest: Effects of fire and experimental warming in Afromontane grasslands
- Hendrik Sithole: A Decade of Assessing Human and Climatic Influences on the Macroinvertebrates of Kruger Rivers
- Purvance Shikwambana: The Kruger National Park Unspared from Riverine Microplastic Pollution
- Simon Scheiter: Ecosystems driven by disturbance are committed to larger changes under elevated CO2
- Montagu Murray: Savanna Science Network Meeting Views on responsible tourism and carbon footprint offsetting
- Marlize Muller: Grassland diversity and functioning under increased climate and land-use change in South Africa
- Fezile Mtsetfwa: Decoupling of keystone structures in a Marula/knobthorn savanna in response to climate and land use changes: Eswatini
- Robert McCleery: Environmental Properties Facilitate Animal Community Recovery from Extreme Events
- Soizig Le Stradic: How fire history impacts biomass allocation and root morphological traits in Cerrado
- Yao Anicet Gervais Kouame: How big is the iceberg underwater? Evaluating roots biomass from aboveground traits in savanna trees
- Gareth Hempson: Long-term herbivore population trends and spatial dynamics across Kruger and the adjoining private game reserves
- Loewan Erasmus: Teatime in Kruger: best practices for applying the Tea Bag Index in an African savanna context
- Joris Cromsigt: Predation risk may constrain herbivores’ capacity to adapt to warming
- Ewan Brennan: Application of a Human-Elephant Conflict Toolbox for Developing Coexistence in Rural Kenya
- Melinda Boyers: How do wildebeest adjust their movement behaviour to cope with extremes of temperature and aridity? A Kruger – Kalahari comparison
- Sarah Bonney: Ant suppression has little effect on termite activity and plant decomposition
- Aline Bombo: Going under: Is resprout ability affected by fire and herbivory in semi-arid savannas?
- Sandra Barnard: The impact of landuse and climate on the water quality of the Sabie River
- Alan Andersen: Incorporating invertebrates into biodiversity surveys for conservation planning
- Vagner Zanzarini: Grass traits variability influences flammability in open savannas in the Cerrado
- Gianluca Zaffarano: Preliminary data on prevalence of Echinococcus granulosus in warthogs of the Kruger National Park: a One Health perspective
- Camille Vitet: No evidence for dilution and detection effects of group size on behavior and survival of plains zebra under predation risk
- Wally van Sickle: Idea Wild and funding opportunities for researchers in developing countries
- Helga van Coller: Large mammals mediate soil characteristics in a nutrient-rich sodic savanna
- Anna Treydte: Should I graze or should I go?
- Kyle Tomlinson: The ecology and evolution of spiny plants
- Jasper Slingsby: Using ignition catchments to predict human impacts on fire
- Frances Siebert: The contribution of forbs to the dry season diet of elephant, impala and cattle in a semi-arid savanna
- Adrian Shrader: Trade-offs between anti-predator and social vigilance by impala
- Peter Scogings: Phenols, spines, and diet preference of black rhino
- Elise Say-Sallaz: Anti-predator behavioural responses of Zebra (Equus quagga) to two predators with contrasted hunting modes
- Rebecca Muller: Giraffes and Vegetation Structure in Arid Savannas
- Tamera Minnick: Linking resistance and resilience in arid and semiarid environments to heterogeneity of vegetation and soils: Species matter
- Julia Mata: Capybara grazing lawns in a South American savanna
- Theodore Lefebvre: The world of spiny trunk trees
- Kimberly Ledger: Tick response to megafauna exclusion in an African savanna
- Duncan Kimuyu: Interactions between livestock, wildlife, and fire: Lessons from the Kenya Longterm Exclosure Experiment (KLEE)
- Edmund February: The relationship between grass functional traits, soil nutrients and grazer densities in the KNP
- Huan Fan: Impact of seasonality on gut microbiota of free-ranging herbivores
- Gabriella Damasceno: The presence of invasive grasses changes flammability of open savannas in the Cerrado
- Alexandra Connolly: Why do some African acacias have a flat top?
- Anabelle Cardoso: What stops fire spreading?
- Twane Bester: Do individual monoterpenes influence elephant diet choice?
- Jean- Philippe Akpoué: A model of tree resprout biomass allocation in a fireprone savanna A model of tree resprout biomass allocation in a fireprone savanna
- Matthew Wood: Can elephants use olfactory cues to detect water?
- Donovan Tye: Drivers of population dynamics in an invasive parthenogenetic snail in Southern Kruger National Park
- Ulfia Lenfers: Bush encroachment, tree damage, and coppicing. Final results of an agent-based model comparison inside and outside the Kruger Nationalpark
- Greg Kiker: The OpenSavanna Modelling Initiative: Supporting ecosystem modelling for adaptive management
- Andreas Kaiser: Rainfall and runoff experiments to learn about the erodibility of soils within the southern part of Kruger National Park, South Africa
- Louise Swemmer: Not everything is as it seems: Visitor perceptions of extractive resource use, Kruger National Park
- Izak Smit: Conservation Framings – are we diverse in opinion or are we at conflict with ourselves?
- Charlotte Searle: Drivers of leopard habitat use and relative abundance in the southern KAZA TFCA
- Manaswi Raghurama: Impacts of Nitrogen-fixing invasive plants on nutrient cycling and outflow in a tropical montane forest-grassland mosaic in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, India
- Michelle Pretorius: Mesocarnivores in Protected Areas
- Margarita Mulero-Pázmány: Species traits as predictors of road-avoidance responses in African ungulates
- Mochammad Iqbal: Homerange study on Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) using GPS collar in Baluran National Park, East Java
- Olli Hyvarinen: Vegetation dynamics in the face of a major land use change: a 30- year case study from semi-arid South Africa
- Kai Heckel: Creation of a very high-resolution digital surface model of the Kruger National Park from CD-NGI aerial imagery using PCI GXL
- Llewellyn Foxcroft: Alien plants in Kruger National Park: assessing future trends as a basis for management interventions
- Sam Ferreira: Conservation my lucky ass – do you have skin in the game?
- Gregor Feig: Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (EFTEON)
- Andrew Davies: Mound-building termites and anthropogenic land-use
- Blair Cowie: How land management influences Parthenium invasion
- Tim Coulson: Synthesizing individual, population, community, and landscape level data to aid management of savanna ecosystems
- Mary Burak: Human Effects on the Spatial-Genetic Structure of Lions in Kenya’s Ewaso Ecosystem
- Michael Brett: How Critical Theory provides useful insights into dramatic shifts in protected area management
- Jussi Baade: In situ Measurements on Land Surface Dynamics in Pristine Environments – CO-LD-EMS First Years Activities
- Nikhail Arumoogum: Temporal variation in predictors of habitat selection in sable antelope
- Richard Alward: Tree Canopy Removal Releases Shrub Understory: Monitoring restoration success using drones in western Colorado, USA
- Jacques Gignoux: 58 years of research at Lamto (Côte d’Ivoire): historical and recent advances
- Karin Hannweg: Expanding Warburgia salutaris conservation in southern Africa: a case study in Zimbabwe
- Sarah Konaré : Ammonium-Nitrate partitioning can favour tree-grass coexistence in an African humid savanna
- R. Sedricke Lapuz: Mapping potential Southeast Asian savannas using species distribution models and plant functional trait distributions
- Jean-Christophe Lata: Role of the biological control of nitrogen cycle on savanna grass-trees competition and coexistence
- Tiffany Pillay: Soil, litter and plant dynamics across a precipitation gradient: the effects of fertilization and woody plant encroachment
- Melissa Schmitt: Managing for ecological complexity of savanna communities revealed through herbivore and habitat structure
- Felix V. Skhosana: A systematic review of the impacts of woody encroachment on ecosystem services in African and North American savannas and grasslands
- William Bond: Trees for Africa: a critique of tree planting to reduce atmospheric carbon
- Monique Botha: Trade-offs between biomass loss tolerance and shade tolerance in African tree seedlings
- Case Madelon: Savanna tree and grass root-niche separation varies with soil texture and rainfall
- Charles-Dominique Tristan: Savannas and open Biomes in South China
- Corli Coetsee: Bloom or bust – woody flowering strategies in Kruger National Park
- Alessandra Fidelis: And after fire… the Cerrado is flowering
- Nicola Stevens: Understanding the range determinants of Colophospermum mopane
- Paolo Strampelli: Carnivores in complex landscapes
- Kaylee van den Bosch: An assessment of the reproductive ecology of the Pepperbark tree (Warburgia salutaris) in the Kruger National Park, South Africa
- Susi Vetter: From bush encroachment to biome shift: the ecology of thicket pioneers
- Graham von Maltitz: Rethinking what we mean by degradation in South Africa and the importance of conservation areas as baselines against which to monitor it
- Joseph White: Mapping the risk of woody plant encroachment for provisioning ecosystem services
- Guin Zambatis: A Walk down Memory Lane