10.5061/DRYAD.DJH9W0W02
Hutchinson, Matthew
0000-0002-2423-4026
Princeton University
Potter, Arjun
0000-0002-7789-6349
Princeton University
Ali Imron, Muhammad
Gadjah Mada University
Pudyatmoko, Satyawan
Gadjah Mada University
Short-term plant-community responses to large mammalian herbivore
exclusion in a rewilded Javan savanna
Dryad
dataset
2021
FOS: Biological sciences
2021-07-17T00:00:00Z
2021-07-17T00:00:00Z
en
4758 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Grassy biomes such as savannas are maintained by a suite of ecosystem
processes from herbivory to rainfall and fire. Many studies have examined
the impacts of large mammalian herbivores on herbaceous plant communities
but few of these studies have been conducted in humid, fertile savannas.
We present the findings of a short-term experiment that investigated the
effects of herbivory in one such savanna. We erected large-herbivore
exclosures in Alas Purwo National Park, Java where rainfall is high and
fire is suppressed to test how herbivores impact plant community
development during and in response to the wet season. When large mammalian
herbivores were excluded, herbaceous plant communities in Alas Purwo were
less grassy and less similar; diverging in their composition as the
growing season progressed. Notably, weedy plant species (Imperata
cylindrica and Senna cf. tora) appeared to benefit most from herbivore
release. Our results suggest that heavy grazing pressure by native large
herbivores controlled the composition of the herbaceous layer and
prevented strong light competitors from becoming dominant. At the end of
the growing season, herbivore exclusion plots showed higher beta diversity
than plots exposed to herbivores. Our findings suggest that, at our
high-rainfall site, large mammalian herbivores constrain the developmental
trajectory of plant communities through the growing season.
See Methods section of Potter et al. 2021 PLOS ONE.