Adopting a heterogeneity paradigm for understanding and managing elephants for biodiversity : a case study in riparian woodlands in Kruger National Park

Abstract

Decades of study devoted to solving the “elephant problem” have generally concurred that increasing elephant populations inevitably reduce biodiversity. However, recent evidence suggests that such reductions can be accompanied by increases in other components of biodiversity, and that ultimately elephant effects are scale-dependent. Although this new perspective now underpins elephant management strategies in savannas such as the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa, few empirical studies in support of this strategy have incorporated the contribution of spatial context, or allowed for the emergence of relevant scales, in their interpretations of heterogeneity. Moreover, use of traditional modes of scientific enquiry and statistical approaches for investigating heterogeneity in complex systems have been challenged. Recent advances in spatial statistics, together with an alternative mode of science that draws upon multiple lines of converging evidence rather than testing narrowlyfocused hypotheses, have the potential to address these challenges. However, their practical application for understanding elephants as agents of change remains lacking. Riparian zones along the ephemeral rivers in northern KNP provided an ideal landscape to explore the spatial and temporal parameters of elephant effects in response to surface water, as a critical resource, and hence to develop a framework for a heterogeneity approach for understanding and managing elephants as agents of change in savannas.