Historical Changes of Vegetation in the Chobe Area

• Elephants are the main agent shaping the vegetation (substrate), whereas soil properties and, at a larger scale, climate constitute major controllers of elephants' activities and of their effects on vegetation. However, elephants have not been the only agents of change in the Chobe ecosystem and its vegetation during the 150 or more turbulent years covered by this chapter. There have been others. The chapter discusses the vegetation dynamics that took place concurrently with the fall and rise of the elephant population following the ivory hunt in the end of the 20th century, and explains the relative importance of elephants, smaller herbivores and direct human impact through logging, burning and livestock grazing in causing these changes. The fall and rise of the Chobe elephant population during the last 150 or so years, has affected the vegetation on the relatively nutrient rich alluvium differently from that on the nutrient-deficient sand.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Alluvium

Chobe area

Elephants

Germs

Livestock

Vegetation changes

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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