Browsing by Author "Kimuyu, Duncan"

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    Lessons from a century of evidence-based fire management in grassy ecosystems.
    (2022-02-28) Govender, Navashni; Staver, Carla; Archibald, Sally; Wigley-Coetsee, Corli; Strydom, Tercia; Humphrey, Glynis; Kimuyu, Duncan
    This African Journal of Range and Forage Science, fire Special Issue is dedicated to Winston Smuts Watts Trollope for his contribution, commitment, inspiration, support and a life-time of work to fire Ecology, with a tribute compiled by Navashni Govender, Sally archibald, Susanne Vetter andCorli Wigley-Coetsee. Brian W Van Wilgen wrote a succinct yet thorough review of the book titled ‘Ecology of fire-dependent ecosystems: Wildland fire science, policy and management’, by Devan McGranahan and Carissa Wonkka. although the authors are from North America and the focus is accordingly skewed towards the northern hemisphere, many good examples are used from around the globe, including Africa, to introduce all aspects of wildland fire science. Van Wilgen's review highlights how fire use, and fire research in Africa has contributed to the global understanding of the interplay between science, policy and management, and this sets the scene for the papers presented in this special issue.
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    Synergistic effects of long-term herbivory and previous fire on fine-scale heterogeneity of prescribed grassland burns
    (Ecology, 2020-10) Kimuyu, Duncan; Werner, Chhaya M.; Veblen, Kari E.; Sensenig, Ryan L.; LaMalfa, Eric; Young, Truman P.
    Grassland and savanna ecosystems, important for both livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, are strongly affected by ecosystem drivers such as herbivory, fire, and drought. Interactions among fire, herbivores and vegetation produce complex feedbacks in these ecosystems, but these have rarely been studied in the context of fuel continuity and resultant fire heterogeneity. We carried out 36 controlled burns within replicated experimental plots that had allowed differential access by wild and domestic large herbivores since 1995 in a savanna ecosystem in Kenya. Half of these were reburns of plots burned five years previously. We show here that the fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of fire was greater in plots a) previously burned, b) accessible to large herbivores, and especially c) these two in combination. An additional embedded experiment demonstrated that even small experimental burnfree patches can have strong positive effects on tree saplings, which experienced less damage during controlled burns and quicker post-fire recovery. This work highlights the importance of simultaneously examining the interactions between fire and herbivory on fuel heterogeneity, which can have important impacts on the growth of woody saplings in savanna grasslands.