Elephant Carcasses Reshape Savannahs for 8 Years as Soil Nitrogen Jumps 3,000-Fold
Updated
Updated · BBC Discover Wildlife · Oct 12
Elephant Carcasses Reshape Savannahs for 8 Years as Soil Nitrogen Jumps 3,000-Fold
3 articles · Updated · BBC Discover Wildlife · Oct 12
Summary
A South Africa study found elephant carcasses can keep altering savannah ecosystems for at least eight years, long after the bodies disappear.
Nitrogen around fresh carcasses rose by as much as 3,000 times normal, wiping out nearby plants at first and sharply changing soil chemistry and microbial communities.
As those nutrient levels eased, a few fast-growing, nutrient-rich grasses took over while overall plant diversity stayed low.
Herbivores repeatedly returned to graze those richer grasses, and their manure fed more nutrients back into the soil, extending the carcass's ecological legacy.
The findings from Kruger National Park, published in PNAS, suggest dead elephants remain ecosystem engineers on land much as whale falls do in the ocean.