Wildlife and livestock contribute significantly to the economies of most sub-Saharan African countries. The wildlife sector in Africa is worth US $7 billion with an annual growth rate of 5%. It is thus a major contributor to the continental gross domestic product (GDP). In East and southern African countries, the consumptive and nonconsumptive utilization of wildlife is a significant foreign ex...

Exponential expansion of human populations and human activities within primate habitats has resulted in high potential for pathogen exchange creating challenges for biodiversity conservation and global health. Under such conditions, resilient habitat generalists such as black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) may act as effective sentinels to overall ecosystem health and alert us to imp...

livestock grazing is one of the most important kinds of land usage that has a high potential to decrease or increase carbon storage in rangeland ecosystem. this research was investigated the effects of enclosure on soil carbon storage in a rangeland with dominant plants of artemisia aucheri. hence, two rangelands of enclosure (shahtappeh-chah mahmood) and no enclosure (chiro) were chosen in sem...

Wildlife populations are declining severely in many protected areas and unprotected pastoral areas of Africa. Rapid large-scale land use changes, poaching, climate change, rising population pressures, governance, policy, economic and socio-cultural transformations and competition with livestock all contribute to the declines in abundance. Here we analyze the population dynamics of 15 wildlife a...

Understanding the impacts of livestock grazing on wildlands is important for making appropriate ecosystem management decisions. Using livestock exclosures, we examined the effects of moderate cattle grazing on the abundance of California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyii Richardson) and the spatial distribution of active burrows within their colonies in grassland and blue oak (Quercus do...

Livestock grazing is one of the most important kinds of land usage that has a high potential to decrease or increase carbon storage in rangeland ecosystem. This research was investigated the effects of enclosure on soil carbon storage in a rangeland with dominant plants of Artemisia aucheri. Hence, two rangelands of enclosure (Shahtappeh-Chah Mahmood) and no enclosure (Chiro) were chosen in Sem...

Treelines differentiate vastly contrasting ecosystems: open tundra from closed forest. Treeline advance has implications for the climate system due to the impact of the transition from tundra to forest ecosystem on carbon (C) storage and albedo. Treeline advance has been seen to increase above-ground C stocks as low vegetation is replaced with trees but decrease organic soil C stocks as old car...

BACKGROUND In West Africa, natural ecosystems such as woodlands are the main source for energy, building poles and livestock fodder. They probably behave like net carbon sinks, but there are only few studies focusing on their carbon exchange with the atmosphere. Here, we have analyzed CO2 fluxes measured for 17 months by an eddy-covariance system over a degraded woodland in northern Benin. Spec...