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Investigating the effects of management practice on mammalian co-occurrence along the West Coast of South Africa.

ABSTRACT: The subtle and cascading effects (e.g., altered interspecific interactions) that anthropogenic stressors have on local ecological assemblages often go unnoticed but are concerning given their importance in ecosystem function. For example, elimination of buffalo from the Serengeti National Park is suggested to have driven increased abundance of smaller antelope as a result of release from competition. The perceived low abundance of small antelope in the contractual Postberg section of the West Coast National Park (the park) has been an ongoing management concern which has been anecdotally attributed to predation by a mesopredator (the caracal, Caracal caracal). However, we hypothesized that the historical overstocking, and consequent overgrazing by larger-bodied managed ungulates would influence small antelope abundance. Using camera traps, we investigated species co-occurrence and temporal activity between small antelope, managed ungulates and caracals in Postberg as well as another part of the park (Langebaan) and a farm outside of the park. Results suggest that small antelope and managed ungulates have a high degree of temporal overlap (? = 0.74, 0.79 and 0.86 for the farm, Langebaan and Postberg respectively), while temporal partitioning between small antelope and caracal is apparent (? = 0.59). Further, small antelope and managed ungulates appear to occur independently of one another (SIF = 0.91-1 across areas). Managed ungulates were detected almost three times more frequently on fallow lands when compared to the more vegetated sites within the park suggesting that segregated food/cover resources allow for independent occurrence. Small antelope had a much higher probability of occurrence outside of the protected area (e.g., ? = 0.192 and 0.486 for steenbok at Postberg, Langebaan compared to 0.841 on the farm), likely due to less variable (more intact) habitat outside of the protected area. There is not sufficient evidence to currently warrant management intervention for predators. The small size of the protected area provides limited scope for spatial replication thus reducing possibilities to infer the cause and effect for complex interactions (which would historically have taken place over much larger areas) with negative implications for adaptive management. We recommend continued monitoring over multiple seasons and a wider area to determine the spatial information requirements to inform management of small protected areas.

SUBMITTER: Winterton DJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6991126 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Investigating the effects of management practice on mammalian co-occurrence along the West Coast of South Africa.

Winterton Deborah Jean DJ van Wilgen Nicola J NJ Venter Jan A JA

PeerJ 20200127

The subtle and cascading effects (e.g., altered interspecific interactions) that anthropogenic stressors have on local ecological assemblages often go unnoticed but are concerning given their importance in ecosystem function. For example, elimination of buffalo from the Serengeti National Park is suggested to have driven increased abundance of smaller antelope as a result of release from competition. The perceived low abundance of small antelope in the contractual Postberg section of the West Co ...[more]

PMID: 32025364

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Project description:The vegetation of calcareous coastal dunes of Holocene age along the south coast of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region is poorly described. This vegetation comprises a mosaic of communities associated with two biomes, Fynbos and Subtropical Thicket. Previously, expert knowledge rather than quantitative floristic analysis has been used to identify and delimit vegetation units. In many areas, mapped units conflate vegetation on Holocene sand with that on unconsolidated sediments of late Pleistocene age, despite pronounced species turnover across this edaphic boundary. Despite dominance by Cape lineages and fynbos vegetation, dune vegetation in the eastern part of the region has been included in the Subtropical Thicket Biome rather than the Fynbos Biome. The high levels of local plant endemism associated with this dune vegetation and the small and fragmented configuration of these habitats, makes it an urgent conservation priority especially when placed in the context of rising sea levels, increasing development pressures and numerous other threats. Here we provide a quantitative analysis of 253 plots of the 620 km2 of Holocene dune vegetation of the study area using phytosociological and multivariate methods. We identified six fynbos and two thicket communities based on the occurrences of 500 species. Following a long tradition in Cape vegetation typology, we used the Strandveld (beach vegetation) concept as our first-order vegetation entity and identified six units based on the fynbos floras. These were, from east to west, Southeastern Strandveld, St Francis Strandveld, Goukamma Strandveld, Southwestern Strandveld and Grootbos Strandveld. Each unit was differentiated by a suite of differential species, most being Holocene dune endemics. The two thicket communities-Mesic and Xeric Dune Thicket-showed limited variation across the study area and were subsumed into the Strandveld units. We discussed our findings in terms of vegetation-sediment relationships, emphasizing the need for a greater geographical coverage of sediment ages to facilitate a better understanding of deposition history on vegetation composition. We also discussed the role of soil moisture and fire regime on structuring the relative abundance of fynbos and thicket across the Holocene dune landscape. Finally, we address the conservation implications of our study, arguing that all remaining Holocene dune habitat should be afforded the highest conservation priority in regional land-use planning processes.

Dataset Information

Investigating the effects of management practice on mammalian co-occurrence along the West Coast of South Africa.

Publications

Investigating the effects of management practice on mammalian co-occurrence along the West Coast of South Africa.

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