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Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna

Abandoned cattle (Bos taurus) kraals are sources of habitat heterogeneity in dystrophic semi‐arid African savannas with a strong positive effect on soil nutrients and plant productivity. However, little is known regarding how macro‐invertebrate assemblages vary between abandoned kraals and the surro...

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Autores principales: Muvengwi, Justice, Chikorowondo, Gift, Mbiba, Monicah, Gandiwa, Edson
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6145025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30250717
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4332
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author Muvengwi, Justice
Chikorowondo, Gift
Mbiba, Monicah
Gandiwa, Edson
author_facet Muvengwi, Justice
Chikorowondo, Gift
Mbiba, Monicah
Gandiwa, Edson
author_sort Muvengwi, Justice
collection PubMed
description Abandoned cattle (Bos taurus) kraals are sources of habitat heterogeneity in dystrophic semi‐arid African savannas with a strong positive effect on soil nutrients and plant productivity. However, little is known regarding how macro‐invertebrate assemblages vary between abandoned kraals and the surrounding savanna matrix. We tested whether herbaceous biomass and basal and aerial covers and soil nutrients have an effect on aboveground and belowground macro‐invertebrate assemblages. Twelve abandoned kraals were contrasted with their paired control plots for soil characteristics, herbaceous productivity, and macro‐invertebrate assemblages in Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe. Abandoned kraals had significantly higher concentrations of soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and calcium (Ca) as well as herbaceous biomass and basal and aerial covers than control plots. Both aboveground and belowground macro‐invertebrate species richness were higher on abandoned kraals. However, only belowground macro‐invertebrate diversity (Shannon H′ and Hill number 1) was significantly higher on abandoned kraals. Soil nutrients and herbaceous productivity had positive and significant correlations with the dominant taxa (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Isoptera, and Myriapoda) on abandoned kraals. These results add to the growing body of evidence that abandoned kraals exert significant effects on savanna spatial heterogeneity years later, with implications on ecosystem processes and functioning.
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spelling pubmed-61450252018-09-24 Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna Muvengwi, Justice Chikorowondo, Gift Mbiba, Monicah Gandiwa, Edson Ecol Evol Original Research Abandoned cattle (Bos taurus) kraals are sources of habitat heterogeneity in dystrophic semi‐arid African savannas with a strong positive effect on soil nutrients and plant productivity. However, little is known regarding how macro‐invertebrate assemblages vary between abandoned kraals and the surrounding savanna matrix. We tested whether herbaceous biomass and basal and aerial covers and soil nutrients have an effect on aboveground and belowground macro‐invertebrate assemblages. Twelve abandoned kraals were contrasted with their paired control plots for soil characteristics, herbaceous productivity, and macro‐invertebrate assemblages in Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe. Abandoned kraals had significantly higher concentrations of soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and calcium (Ca) as well as herbaceous biomass and basal and aerial covers than control plots. Both aboveground and belowground macro‐invertebrate species richness were higher on abandoned kraals. However, only belowground macro‐invertebrate diversity (Shannon H′ and Hill number 1) was significantly higher on abandoned kraals. Soil nutrients and herbaceous productivity had positive and significant correlations with the dominant taxa (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Isoptera, and Myriapoda) on abandoned kraals. These results add to the growing body of evidence that abandoned kraals exert significant effects on savanna spatial heterogeneity years later, with implications on ecosystem processes and functioning. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6145025/ /pubmed/30250717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4332 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by 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 Original Research
Muvengwi, Justice
Chikorowondo, Gift
Mbiba, Monicah
Gandiwa, Edson
Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
title Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
title_full Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
title_fullStr Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
title_full_unstemmed Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
title_short Diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
title_sort diversity and abundance of macro‐invertebrates on abandoned cattle kraals in a semi‐arid savanna
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6145025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30250717
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4332
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