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African Landscapes pp 79–103Cite as

Landscape Ecology of Savannas

From Disturbance Regime to Management Strategies

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Part of the book series: Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation ((STHE,volume 4))

Abstract

In this contribution, the sustainability of range management in savannas is related to dynamics within a savanna landscape. Concepts of landscape ecology may help to identify crucial aspects of a sustainable management, such as a specific disturbance regime. Some important goals for future research activities are identified, either related to the process and implementation of research, or to the content of research.

The transdisciplinary science of landscape ecology studies the structure, function, and development of landscapes. It is still passing through a process of self-discovery and does not yet offer a unified theory. As its roots are deep in geography as well as in geobotany and land management, self-discovery comprises the search for the unification of landscape ecology as a discipline, the relation between basic research and application, and between sectoral and holistic approaches.

The key landscape types for landscape ecology have been the cultural landscapes in Europe and North America. Some of the concepts developed for these landscapes are difficult to transfer to African savannas. Nevertheless, the dynamics in a savanna are best dealt with on the spatial and conceptual level of a landscape. Here the different disturbances can be integrated into a disturbance regime, and their functional aspects can be discussed. It is argued that the sustainable use of a savanna landscape by nomadic herders implies a disturbance regime roughly similar to the regime occurring under natural conditions. A sustainable use has to ensure fodder reserves as an ecological buffer against temporal variability, and it has to be adapted to spatial variability on a landscape level.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is difficult to give an adequate English translation of the German term Landschaftswandel.

  2. 2.

    According to Gitay and Noble (1997, p. 6), the term ‘response group’ should be used to describe groups of organisms on the basis of their response to a certain disturbance. Response patterns may be identified according to each species’ individual responses along a disturbance gradient. Species may then be functionally classified according to similarities in their responses to disturbances, which manifest themselves in similar trait syndromes.

  3. 3.

    The desired condition of a technical, ecological, or social-ecological system is known as a benchmark. For the social-ecological system “‘rangeland,’”, it represents the optimal state or condition of the range with regard to a certain mode of land use. Therefore benchmarks vary depending upon the ecology of the area assessed and the demands of the relevant user group (Aucamp et al., 1992, p. 9). In the past benchmarks in range ecology were not frequently regarded as being relative to a certain context but were understood as being either “‘the percentage of the present vegetation which is original vegetation for the site’” (Dyksterhuis 1949, p. 105) or reduced to the ?‘condition under normal climate and best practicable management’ “ (Hawley 1944, quoted according to Dyksterhuis, 1949, p. 104), or they were borrowed from other studies.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 389) and by the Volkswagen Foundation (AZ: II/79 041) is gratefully acknowledged.

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    Linstädter, A. (2009). Landscape Ecology of Savannas. In: Bubenzer, O., Bollig, M. (eds) African Landscapes. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 4. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78682-7_3

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