ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2016
Clarifying the confusion: old-growth savannahs and tropical ecosystem degradation.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Thicket Formation and Light Limitation Drive Patch-Scale Vegetation Transitions in a Subtropical Savanna.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Detected Shifts Towards Drought-Adaptive Strategies in the Amazon Forest Over the Last Four Decades.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Topography is a Major Determinant of Forest-Savanna Distributions in Mosaic Landscapes in Central Africa.Ecosystems (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- The "Too-Few Elephant Problem": Quantitative Analysis of Historical Elephant Tree-Toppling Rates Across Africa.Ecosystems (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Global alternatives of natural vegetation cover.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Identifying Cryptic Mammals With Non-Invasive Methods: An Effective Molecular Species Identification Tool to Survey Southern African Terrestrial Carnivores.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
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- Article
- WASP: the World Archives of Species Perception.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2023Article
- How climate, topography, soils, herbivores, and fire control forest-grassland coexistence in the Eurasian forest-steppe.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2022Article
- Article
- Floristic evidence for alternative biome states in tropical Africa.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- High plant diversity and slow assembly of old-growth grasslands.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Understanding patterns of land-cover change in the Brazilian Cerrado from 2000 to 2015.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
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Abstract
Ancient tropical grassy biomes are often misrecognized as severely degraded forests. I trace this confusion to several factors, with roots in the nineteenth century, including misinterpretations of the nature of fire in savannahs, attempts to reconcile savannah ecology with Clementsian succession, use of physiognomic (structural) definitions of savannah and development of tropical degradation frameworks focused solely on forests. Towards clarity, I present two models that conceptualize the drivers of ecosystem degradation as operating in both savannahs and forests. These models highlight how human-induced environmental changes create ecosystems with superficially similar physiognomies but radically different conservation values. Given the limitation of physiognomy to differentiate savannahs from severely degraded forests, I present an alternative approach based on floristic composition. Data from eastern lowland Bolivia show that old-growth savannahs can be reliably distinguished by eight grass species and that species identity influences ecosystem flammability. I recommend that scientists incorporate savannahs in tropical degradation frameworks alongside forests, and that savannah be qualified as old-growth savannah in reference to ancient grassy biomes or derived savannah in reference to deforestation. These conceptual advances will require attention not only to tree cover, but also to savannah herbaceous plant species and their ecologies.This article is part of the themed issue 'Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation'.
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