Fire and water: drivers of abundance in African mammals

The savannahs of East Africa hold some of the last relatively intact ecosystems on our planet. Populations of large mammals and complete trophic assemblages from lions to elephants not only provide a unique insight into how megafauna may once have shaped landscapes across the globe, but provide millions of dollars of tourist income. Unfortunately, even here populations of many species are changing fast driven by a variety of human influences from well-known elephant and rhino poaching, through large-scale bushmeat harvests to poorly understood impacts of climate change and altered fire management. Much of what we know about how these ecosystems function and the role of herbivory in maintaining landscapes is based on detailed fieldwork from one or two sites, with remarkably little overview of processes between regions.

This project will take advantage of the rapid increased availability of GPS aerial survey data, remotely sensed environmental data and novel statistical analyses techniques to untangle the processes shaping mammal abundance in protected areas across eastern Africa. Specifically, the student will:

Test the hypothesis that rainfall (via food availability) has a larger influence on distribution and abundance of large than small mammals.
Test the hypothesis that fire and herbivores show stronger feedbacks in high rainfall areas.
Quantify the encroachment of humans and evidence for poaching within protected areas across the region and the impact this has on animal distribution and abundance.
Combining tests of fundamental theory about the processes that shape savannahs with applied conservation focused questions of direct relevance to park managers, this project will appeal to students seeking a solid background in quantitative conservation biology and spatial ecology. The project will involve using remote sensing to derive environmental layers for East African parks as well as analysis of aerial survey data using modern statistical approaches to the analysis of spatial datasets. The student will gain experience working in the field in east Africa during an aerial survey and ground trothing remote sensing data.

The student will join Dr Colin Beale’s Spatial Ecology and Conservation Science group, and co-supervised by Professor Chris Thomas. Beale’s group is active across east Africa, with several students and researchers working on pure and applied projects in Tanzania and more widely. Thomas’ group work on conservation projects in the UK and globally. Both groups hold weekly joint meetings.