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Impacts of native versus domestic ungulates on biological communities in arid savanna
Johanna Reinhard (Ph.D. student @ University of Potsdam since 2012) link
Arid rangelands worldwide are adversely affected by high levels of human intervention and high climatic variability. In savanna rangelands of Southern Africa, unsustainable and intensified livestock management during the last decades often led to desertification i.e. a decrease in vegetation cover and/or a change of vegetation composition with subsequent losses of biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services .
I will focus to investigate representative components for functional change in soils and vegetation and the alteration in community structure of vegetation, insects and reptiles as a result of grazing. In order to gain a holistic view on how species interact in a community and how a new component may displace an evolutionary old one (here domestic livestock and native herbivores), I will explore how the presence and absence of herbivores influence other trophic levels that play a key role in ecosystem functioning along fine scale environmental gradient and across seasons.
Life history, breeding and rearing of the silk-producing Gonometa postica moth
Johanna Reinhard & Friedrich Reinhard
BRinK - Biological Research in Kuzikus
Ant-Acacia Symbiosis in Southern Africa
Heather Campbell (Ph.D. student)
University of Reading
The overall aim of this project is the study of ant-Acacia interactions in a Namibian Savannah ecosystem. In this symbiotic relationship ants receive food rewards and shelter within swollen thorns, whilst the Acacia is protected from herbivore damage by aggressive ant defenses. Although ant-plant interactions are widespread in tropical forests they are rarely found in savannah. The exceptions to this are the African Acacia species. So far the only African Acacia to have received detailed scientific attention is the Acacia drepanolobium. The bulk of this information had been recorded at one field site in Laikipia, Kenya. The overall aim of conducting research at Kuzikus is to study ant-Acacia interactions at a new location and on novel Acacia species.
Objectives
- Assess Acacia and ant faunal diversity at Kuzikus reserve
- Collect ant specimens for definite species identification and phylogenetic study
- Establish basic, quantitative phonological data for Kuzikus Acacias
- Elucidate details of ant rewards provisioned by uncharacterized Acacia species (timing of nectar secretion/provision of food bodies etc.)and corresponding activity
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- Investigate Acacia resource use by non-ant athropods and non-resident ants
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