International Network – Science (2014–2016)
Dr Colin Beale, University of York
Uncovering the variable roles of fire in savannah ecosystems project (IN-2014-022)
£124,830
Team:
- PI Dr Colin Beale (University of York)
- Prof Andy Dobson (Princeton University)
- Dr Kate Parr (University of Liverpool)
- Dr Maurus Msuha (TAWIRI)
- Prof William Bond (University of Cape Town)
- Prof Michael Anderson (Wake Forest University)
- Dr Sally Archibald (University of the Witwatersrand)
- Dr Gareth Hempson (University of the Witwatersrand)
- Dr Colin Courtney-Mustaphi (University of York)
- Jason Donaldson (University of the Witwatersrand)
- James Probert (University of Liverpool)
Guests:
- Prof Michael J. Crawley (Imperial College London)
- Dr Ben Beeckmans (Ecoscience Lodge, Tarangire)
Summary
This project brought together leading experts in savannah and fire ecology working in Eastern and Southern Africa to share knowledge and understanding of fire impacts in the savannah at the site of a new, large-scale experiment in the Serengeti ecosystem.
Context
Despite the popular portrayal of East African savannahs as icons of wilderness, the reality is that human influence in these ecosystems is pervasive and savannah ecosystems are undergoing relatively rapid change. A global increase in trees and bushes in savannahs is well known, changes in wildlife populations are widespread and rapidly changing distributions and abundances of savannah birds hint at more subtle changes to the ecosystem. These changes are likely responses to a variety of human pressures from the direct impacts of increased CO2, through the increasingly settled pastoralist communities, to the impacts of changed rainfall patterns associated with global climate change. To maintain healthy ecosystems that can support wildlife and pastoralist communities alike, land managers have one main tool available: fire. Fires are deliberately set in most savannahs every year to encourage grass growth, to control insect pests and to manage the balance of trees and grasses across the landscape. Savannah trees, grasses and animals are all adapted to a fire prone ecosystem, yet it is unclear exactly how managers should burn savannah landscapes in this changing environment: they have the option of altering both fire frequency and burning season, both factors known to influence savannah ecosystems.
Initial project
The initial project brought together leading experts in savannah and fire ecology working in eastern and southern Africa to share knowledge and understanding of fire impacts in the savannah at the site of a new, large-scale experiment in the Serengeti ecosystem. Although eastern and southern African savannahs are ecologically relatively similar, political differences between the regions previously led to limited academic exchange. In East Africa, ecosystem research in Serengeti is well developed, but the relative importance of fire and its interactions with rainfall, nutrients and large mammal herbivore densities is still relatively poorly known.
The network aimed to bring together experts from across the spectrum of ecology (from mathematical ecologists to vegetation scientists, from ornithologists to entomologists) to expand our understanding of fire in savannahs generally and in the Serengeti ecosystem specifically. Through five meetings based in the experimental site in Serengeti we gathered data and pooled our expertise and data from elsewhere to address specific questions about the fundamental ecology of savannahs.
New project
As a result of these meetings researchers are undertaking large-scale analyses based on satellite data and linked to ground surveys, and they are running small-scale manipulations of grazing and fire on long-term experimental sites. Partnering with representatives of pastoralist communities and development focused Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), they are drawing together the fundamental research to develop coherent practical guidelines for fire and grazing management that increase the resilience of grassland ecosystems.
https://www.york.ac.uk/yesi/research/resilient-socio-ecosystems-systems/serengeti-fire/
Project outputs (participants in bold font)
Anderson TM, Hempson GP, Donaldson J, Beale CM, te Beest M, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Cromsigt JPGM, Foy C, Fynn R, Hanan N, Keoikantse S, Parr K, Probert J, le Roux L, Smit IPJ, Staver AC, Archibald S. 2025. Identifying ecological knowledge and research gaps via the African Database on Savanna Protected Areas (ADSPA). Diversity and Distributions 31(11): e70123. [CC BY 4.0 Open Access] Data: https://osf.io/xfcb7/ [Apache 2.0 license] Code: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9ghx3ffxp
Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Camara-Brugger SO, Chellman NJ, Muñoz S, Kariuki R, Damber M, Shoemaker A, Ekblom A, Munishi L, Lane P, Marchant R, Heiri O. 2025. Multiple paleofire proxy metrics from tropical lake sediment and soil in the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem. The Holocene 35(9): 926–936. [CC BY 4.0 Open Access] Data: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/S4ILZT
Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Camara-Brugger SO, Ekblom A, Munishi L, Kariuki R, Shoemaker A, Lane P, Marchant R. 2025. Multiporate Poaceae pollen grains observed in the recent fossil record from the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem and Lake Victoria region. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 333: 105240. Data: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/JGZTIK
Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Vos HC, Marchant R, Beale C. 2022. Charcoal whirlwinds and post-fire observations in Serengeti National Park savannahs. Tanzania Journal of Science 48(2): 460–473. DOI: 10.4314/tjs.v48i2.20
Courtney Mustaphi CJ. 2019. Are colluvial soils on kopjes a potential geoarchive of palaeoenvironmental change in semi-arid regions? Twenty-Seventh Meeting of Swiss Sedimentologists SwissSed – University of Fribourg, 23 February 2019. pp. 22–23. [published extended abstract] [backup PDF]
Donaldson JE. 2019. Defining the mechanisms driving grass community (composition and functional trait) shifts in African Savannas (Doctoral dissertation). University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Probert J. 2019. https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2019/07/08/declining-fire-threatens-serengeti-ecosystem/
Probert J, Parr C, Holdo RM, Anderson TM, Archibald S, Courtney Mustaphi C, Dobson A, Donaldson JE, Hempson G, Hopcraft JGC, Morrison TA, Beale CM. 2019. Anthropogenic modifications to fire regimes in the wider Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. Global Change Biology 25(10): 3406–3423.
Beale CM, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Morrison TA, Archibald S, Anderson TM, Dobson AP, Donaldson JE, Hempson GP, Probert J, Parr CL. 2018. Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas. Ecology Letters 21(4): 557–567. [Eureka Alert article]
Hempson G, Parr C, Archibald S, Anderson T, Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Dobson A, Donaldson J, Morrison T, Probert J, Beale C. 2018. Continent-level drivers of African pyrodiversity. Ecography 42(6): 889–899. [Data available from Dryad]
Probert, James R. 2018. Fire and Herbivory in the Serengeti-Mara. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, UK. https://doi.org/10.17638/03030688
Probert J. 2017. https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2017/01/27/postcard-managing-fires-in-serengeti/
Ecoscience Lodge. 2015. Serengeti Fire Network at Ecoscience, November 2015. 01.12.2015. Ecoscience, Science Center and Luxury Lodge, Tanzania. http://www.ecoscience.co.tz/?p=1779
Beale C. 2014. Impact of fire in savannah ecosystems. The Leverhulme Trust – Scholarships for Research and Education. August 2014: p.3.
References
The Leverhulme Trust – Annual Review 2014. page 78. Available online https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/2014
The Leverhulme Trust – Scholarships for Research and Education (August 2014). Available online https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/august-2014