The ecological consequences of forest elephant declines for Afrotropical forests.
Abstract
Poaching is rapidly extirpating African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) from
most of their historical range, leaving vast areas of elephant-free tropical forest.
Elephants are ecological engineers that create and maintain forest habitat, thus their
loss will have strong consequences for the composition and structure of Afrotropical
forests. We evaluated the roles of forest elephants in seed dispersal, nutrient recycling,
and herbivory and physical damage to predict the cascading ecological effects of their
population declines. Loss of seed dispersal by elephants will favor tree species dispersed
abiotically and by smaller dispersal agents, with tree species composition depending
on the downstream effects of changes in elephant nutrient cycling and browsing. Loss
of trampling and herbivory of seedlings and saplings will result in high tree density
as they are released from the pressures of browsing. Diminished seed dispersal by
elephants and high stem density are likely to reduce the recruitment of large trees,
resulting in a more homogeneous forest structure and decreased carbon stocks. In sum,
the loss of ecological services by forest elephants will likely transform Central
African forests to be more like Neotropical forests, from which megafauna were extirpated
thousands of years ago. Without intervention, as much as 96% of Central African forests
will have modified species composition and structure as elephants are compressed into
remaining protected areas. Stopping elephant poaching is an urgent first step to mitigating
these effects, but long-term conservation will require land use planning that incorporates
elephant habitat into forested landscapes that are being rapidly transformed by industrial
agriculture and logging. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Central AfricaLoxodonta cyclotis
bosque tropical
dispersión de semillas
herbivory
herbivoría
nutrient recycling tropical forest
reciclaje de nutrientes
seed dispersal
África Central
关键词:Loxodonta cyclotis, 中非, 种子传播, 食草作用, 营养循环, 热带森林
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16440Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1111/cobi.13035Publication Info
Poulsen, John R; Rosin, Cooper; Meier, Amelia; Mills, Emily; Nuñez, Chase L; Koerner,
Sally E; ... Sowers, Mark (2017). The ecological consequences of forest elephant declines for Afrotropical forests.
Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology. 10.1111/cobi.13035. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16440.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Chase Nunez
Teaching Assistant
National Science Foundation Graduate Research FellowNeil Williams President's Fellow
John Poulsen
Associate Professor of Tropical Ecology
John Poulsen is an ecologist with broad interests in the maintenance and regeneration
of tropical forests and conservation of biodiversity. His research has focused on
the effects of anthropogenic disturbance, such as logging and hunting, on forest structure
and diversity, abundance of tropical animals, and ecological processes. He has conducted
most of his research in Central Africa, where he has also worked as a conservation
manager, directing projects to sustainably manage natural resources i
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