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Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas
Fire is a fundamental process in savannas and is widely used for management. Pyrodiversity, variation in local fire characteristics, has been proposed as a driver of biodiversity although empirical evidence is equivocal. Using a new measure of pyrodiversity (Hempson et al.), we undertook the first c...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5888149/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29441661 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12921 |
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author | Beale, Colin M. Courtney Mustaphi, Colin J. Morrison, Thomas A. Archibald, Sally Anderson, T. Michael Dobson, Andrew P. Donaldson, Jason E. Hempson, Gareth P. Probert, James Parr, Catherine L. |
author_facet | Beale, Colin M. Courtney Mustaphi, Colin J. Morrison, Thomas A. Archibald, Sally Anderson, T. Michael Dobson, Andrew P. Donaldson, Jason E. Hempson, Gareth P. Probert, James Parr, Catherine L. |
author_sort | Beale, Colin M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Fire is a fundamental process in savannas and is widely used for management. Pyrodiversity, variation in local fire characteristics, has been proposed as a driver of biodiversity although empirical evidence is equivocal. Using a new measure of pyrodiversity (Hempson et al.), we undertook the first continent‐wide assessment of how pyrodiversity affects biodiversity in protected areas across African savannas. The influence of pyrodiversity on bird and mammal species richness varied with rainfall: strongest support for a positive effect occurred in wet savannas (> 650 mm/year), where species richness increased by 27% for mammals and 40% for birds in the most pyrodiverse regions. Range‐restricted birds were most increased by pyrodiversity, suggesting the diversity of fire regimes increases the availability of rare niches. Our findings are significant because they explain the conflicting results found in previous studies of savannas. We argue that managing savanna landscapes to increase pyrodiversity is especially important in wet savannas. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5888149 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58881492018-04-12 Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas Beale, Colin M. Courtney Mustaphi, Colin J. Morrison, Thomas A. Archibald, Sally Anderson, T. Michael Dobson, Andrew P. Donaldson, Jason E. Hempson, Gareth P. Probert, James Parr, Catherine L. Ecol Lett Letters Fire is a fundamental process in savannas and is widely used for management. Pyrodiversity, variation in local fire characteristics, has been proposed as a driver of biodiversity although empirical evidence is equivocal. Using a new measure of pyrodiversity (Hempson et al.), we undertook the first continent‐wide assessment of how pyrodiversity affects biodiversity in protected areas across African savannas. The influence of pyrodiversity on bird and mammal species richness varied with rainfall: strongest support for a positive effect occurred in wet savannas (> 650 mm/year), where species richness increased by 27% for mammals and 40% for birds in the most pyrodiverse regions. Range‐restricted birds were most increased by pyrodiversity, suggesting the diversity of fire regimes increases the availability of rare niches. Our findings are significant because they explain the conflicting results found in previous studies of savannas. We argue that managing savanna landscapes to increase pyrodiversity is especially important in wet savannas. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-02-14 2018-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5888149/ /pubmed/29441661 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12921 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Letters Beale, Colin M. Courtney Mustaphi, Colin J. Morrison, Thomas A. Archibald, Sally Anderson, T. Michael Dobson, Andrew P. Donaldson, Jason E. Hempson, Gareth P. Probert, James Parr, Catherine L. Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas |
title | Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas |
title_full | Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas |
title_fullStr | Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas |
title_full_unstemmed | Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas |
title_short | Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas |
title_sort | pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in african savannas |
topic | Letters |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5888149/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29441661 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12921 |
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