{"id":3279,"date":"2014-10-16T14:07:58","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T19:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2014-10-18T09:26:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T14:26:35","slug":"how-carnivores-impact-the-african-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/how-carnivores-impact-the-african-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"How carnivores impact the African landscape<img src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/canada_flag_icon_small.gif\">"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3280\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3280\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy.jpg\" alt=\"In areas where predators keep down populations of herbivores like impala, acacia trees flourish. A lack of predators forces trees to rely on other forms of defense, like thorns. A new study underlines how human impact on carnivores like wild dogs could alter the African landscape (Photo credit: Adam T. Ford)\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy.jpg 400w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy-268x268.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3280\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In areas where predators keep down populations of herbivores like impala, acacia trees flourish. A lack of predators forces trees to rely on other forms of defense, like thorns. A new study underlines how human impact on carnivores like wild dogs could alter the African landscape (Photo credit: Adam T. Ford)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A new study shows the presence &#8211; or absence &#8211; of carnivores can have a big impact on how many and what kind of trees grow in a landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Working in central Kenya, researchers looked at different tree species &#8211; with or without protective thorns &#8211; in areas where herbivores get eaten by their predators, namely African wild dogs and leopards.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0researchers\u00a0found that the most dangerous areas for herbivores have more trees in them, and herbivores avoid these risky areas, even though trees are also food for herbivores. As a result, the thorny tree dominated in safe areas, while the less-thorny and preferred tree dominated in dangerous areas.<\/p>\n<p>The authors suggest that human impacts on carnivore populations could have knock-on effects for tree diversity and the ecosystem as a whole.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/346\/6207\/346.abstract?sid=f071aa4e-e5aa-4a15-862b-c20c0ac9b891\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Original research paper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0published in <em>Science\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0<strong>October 16,\u00a02014<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Names and affiliations of selected\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Adam T. Ford, University of British Columbia, British Columbia<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study shows the presence &#8211; or absence &#8211; of carnivores can have a big impact on how many and what kind of trees grow in a landscape. Working in central Kenya, researchers looked at different tree species &#8211; with or without protective thorns &#8211; in areas where herbivores get eaten by their predators, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[39,170,125,171,917],"class_list":["post-3279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-animal-behaviour","tag-biodiversity","tag-british-columbia","tag-ecology","tag-evolution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC1614-Copy.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-QT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3299,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions\/3299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}