ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2020
Fire and grazing determined grasslands of central Madagascar represent ancient assemblages.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Tipping points induced by palaeo-human impacts can explain presence of savannah in Malagasy and global systems where forest is expected.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Influence of Vegetation Structure on Lemur Recolonization of Post-Fire Habitats in Northwestern Madagascar.American journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Large herbivores are linked to higher herbaceous plant diversity and functional redundancy across spatial scales.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Grass functional traits reflect the long history of fire and grazers in the savannas of Texas.American journal of botany · 2025Article
- A comprehensive stalagmite investigation distinguishing anthropogenic and natural signals in Madagascar between 1680 and 1860.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Gullying and landscape evolution: Lavaka in Lac Alaotra, Madagascar shed light on rates of change and non-anthropogenic controls.Science advances · 2024Article
- Phylogenomic analysis reveals five independently evolved African forage grass clades in the genus Urochloa.Annals of botany · 2024Article
- Global analysis of Poales diversification - parallel evolution in space and time into open and closed habitats.The New phytologist · 2024Article
- Molecular exploration of fossil eggshell uncovers hidden lineage of giant extinct bird.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation.Global change biology · 2022Article
- Are Madagascar's obligate grazing-lawns ancient and evolved with endemic herbivores, or recently selected by introduced cattle?Biology letters · 2022Article
- Seeing the forest for the trees-and the grasses: revisiting the evidence for grazer-maintained grasslands in Madagascar's Central Highlands.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Beyond ancient versus anthropogenic for Madagascar's grassy ecosystems. A Reply to: CrowleyProceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders.The New phytologist · 2021Article
- Article
- Madagascan highlands: originally woodland and forest containing endemic grasses, not grazing-adapted grassland.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Fire and grazing determined grasslands of central Madagascar represent ancient assemblages.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
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Abstract
The ecology of Madagascar's grasslands is under-investigated and the dearth of ecological understanding of how disturbance by fire and grazing shapes these grasslands stems from a perception that disturbance shaped Malagasy grasslands only after human arrival. However, worldwide, fire and grazing shape tropical grasslands over ecological and evolutionary timescales, and it is curious Madagascar should be a global anomaly. We examined the functional and community ecology of Madagascar's grasslands across 71 communities in the Central Highlands. Combining multivariate abundance models of community composition and clustering of grass functional traits, we identified distinct grass assemblages each shaped by fire or grazing. The fire-maintained assemblage is primarily composed of tall caespitose species with narrow leaves and low bulk density. By contrast, the grazer-maintained assemblage is characterized by mat-forming, high bulk density grasses with wide leaves. Within each assemblage, levels of endemism, diversity and grass ages support these as ancient assemblages. Grazer-dependent grasses can only have co-evolved with a now-extinct megafauna. Ironically, the human introduction of cattle probably introduced a megafaunal substitute facilitating modern day persistence of a grazer-maintained grass assemblage in an otherwise defaunated landscape, where these landscapes now support the livelihoods of millions of people.
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