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The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree
Balanites maughamii is an ecologically and culturally valuable tree species, heavily impacted by elephants, which strip bark selectively off the largest trees, increasing their susceptibility to fire damage. Elephants also break intermediate sized trees extensively, keeping them trapped in non-repro...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Biological Sciences
2017
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| _version_ | 1867613231410839552 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Bijl, Alison |
| author2 | Midgley, Jeremy J |
| author_browse | Bijl, Alison Midgley, Jeremy J |
| author_facet | Midgley, Jeremy J Bijl, Alison |
| author_sort | Bijl, Alison |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Balanites maughamii is an ecologically and culturally valuable tree species, heavily impacted by elephants, which strip bark selectively off the largest trees, increasing their susceptibility to fire damage. Elephants also break intermediate sized trees extensively, keeping them trapped in non-reproductive stages. The trees can however survive breaking, stripping and · toppling by elephants, as well as top kill by fires, because they resprout vigorously in response to damage. They also produce root suckers. independently of disturbance. Vegetative reproduction buffers the populations from the infrequent recruitment of seedlings, and facilitates the maintenance of populations over the short term. Balanites maughamii trees are reliant on African elephants (Loxodonta africana) for seed dispersal and to provide a germination cue through mastication. In the absence of elephants, the population experiences a recruitment bottleneck, but root suckers functionally replace seedlings and fill the "recruitment gap", so over the short term, the population is resilient. In all populations, whether elephants are present or not, another hurdle affects recruitment, and it is seed limitation due to seed predation pre- and post- dispersal. Cafeteria experiments revealed that bushveld gerbils (Tatera leucogaster) were removing many seeds but do not scatter- or larder-hoard. They are simply seed predators. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/26457 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:51.499Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | Department of Biological Sciences |
| publisherStr | Department of Biological Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/26457 The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree Bijl, Alison Midgley, Jeremy J Kruger, Laurence M Botany Balanites maughamii demographic bottlenecks elephant dispersal resprouting scatter-hoarding Balanites maughamii is an ecologically and culturally valuable tree species, heavily impacted by elephants, which strip bark selectively off the largest trees, increasing their susceptibility to fire damage. Elephants also break intermediate sized trees extensively, keeping them trapped in non-reproductive stages. The trees can however survive breaking, stripping and · toppling by elephants, as well as top kill by fires, because they resprout vigorously in response to damage. They also produce root suckers. independently of disturbance. Vegetative reproduction buffers the populations from the infrequent recruitment of seedlings, and facilitates the maintenance of populations over the short term. Balanites maughamii trees are reliant on African elephants (Loxodonta africana) for seed dispersal and to provide a germination cue through mastication. In the absence of elephants, the population experiences a recruitment bottleneck, but root suckers functionally replace seedlings and fill the "recruitment gap", so over the short term, the population is resilient. In all populations, whether elephants are present or not, another hurdle affects recruitment, and it is seed limitation due to seed predation pre- and post- dispersal. Cafeteria experiments revealed that bushveld gerbils (Tatera leucogaster) were removing many seeds but do not scatter- or larder-hoard. They are simply seed predators. 2017-12-06T10:19:59Z 2017-12-06T10:19:59Z 2012 2017-02-02T12:53:01Z Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26457 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Botany Balanites maughamii demographic bottlenecks elephant dispersal resprouting scatter-hoarding Bijl, Alison The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree |
| thesis_degree_str | Bachelor's / Honours |
| title | The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree |
| title_full | The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree |
| title_fullStr | The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree |
| title_full_unstemmed | The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree |
| title_short | The demography of Balanites maughamii : an elephant-dispersed tree |
| title_sort | demography of balanites maughamii an elephant dispersed tree |
| topic | Botany Balanites maughamii demographic bottlenecks elephant dispersal resprouting scatter-hoarding |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26457 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bijlalison thedemographyofbalanitesmaughamiianelephantdispersedtree AT bijlalison demographyofbalanitesmaughamiianelephantdispersedtree |