Serengeti: The origins and future of a complex ecosystem

Principal Investigators:

Craig Packer, and Stephen Polasky

The Serengeti ecosystem exemplifies a number of general features of terrestrial food web dynamics and can therefore be viewed as a model system for studying a complex interplay of basic ecological principles. These include: (1) the diverse roles of generalist top predators in governing coexistence in prey communities, (2) the importance of omnivory and intraguild predation in modulating the magnitude of 'top-down' impacts of predators, (3) trophic cascades; (4) the implications of movement, landscape pattern, and spatial heterogeneity for food web dynamics, and, (5) the impact of temporal variation on stability and species composition of local communities. The Serengeti, like many ecosystems, is subject to increasing human use. Understanding human behavior and the links between humans and the ecosystem provides a necessary foundation for conservation. collapse

Password-Protected Site for Participants Only

Participants and Meetings

Activity	Dates	Further Information
Working Group	11th—16th October 2001	Participant List
Graduate Student	1st January—31st May 2002	Participant List
Working Group	26th September—3rd October 2002	Participant List

Participant Contact Information

Peter A. Abrams	peter.abrams@utoronto.ca	University of Toronto
Feetham Banyikwa	feeban@africaonline.co.tz	University of Dar-es-Salaam
Chris Barrett	cbb2@cornell.edu	Cornell University
Christopher Costello	costello@bren.ucsb.edu	University of California, Santa Barbara
Michael B. Coughenour	mikec@nrel.colostate.edu	Colorado State University
Andrew P. Dobson	dobber@princeton.edu	Princeton University
John M. Fryxell	jfryxell@uoguelph.ca	University of Guelph
Kathy Galvin	kathy@nrel.colostate.edu	Colorado State University
Emmanuel Gereta	e.gereta@habari.co.tz	Tanzania National Parks
Ray Hilborn	hilbornr@gmail.com	University of Washington
Robert D. Holt	rdholt@ufl.edu	University of Kansas
Tristan S. Kimbrell	kimbrell@ufl.edu
Peter Little	Peter.little@emory.edu
Samuel McNaughton	sjmcnaug@mailbox.syr.edu	Syracuse University
Simon A. R. Mduma	mduma@habari.co.tz	Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute
Charles Mlingwa	tawiri@habari.co.tz	Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute
Han Olff	h.olff@biol.rug.nl
Craig Packer	packer@biosci.umn.edu	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Stephen Polasky	polasky@umn.edu	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Mark Ritchie	meritchi@syr.edu	Utah State University
Victor Runyoro	ncaa_faru@cybernet.co.tz	Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority
Anthony R. E. Sinclair	sinclair@zoology.ubc.ca	University of British Columbia
Rob Slotow	slotow@nu.ac.za	University of Natal
Stephanie Ewalt	stephewalt@hotmail.com	Colorado State University
Gericke Sommerville	gericke@nrel.colostate.edu	Colorado State University
Markus Borner	markusborner@fzo.org	Frankfurt Zoological Society
Sarah Cleaveland	scleaveland@vet.ed.ac.uk	Unknown
Douglas Donalson	ddonals@calstatela.edu	California State University, Los Angeles
Sarah Durant	s.Durant@ucl.ac.uk	Zoological Society of London
Titus Mlengeya	tanapavet@africaonline.co.tz	Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) Vet
Linda Munson	lmunson@ucdavis.edu	University of California, Davis
Ephraim Mwangomo	mwangomo@hotmail.com	Washington State University
Cassandra Nunez

Products: Publications, Reports, Datasets, Presentations, Visualizations

Type	Products of NCEAS Research
Journal Article	Dobson, Andrew P. 2009. Food-web structure and ecosystem services: Insights from the Serengeti. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Vol: 364. Pages 1665-1682. (Online version)
Journal Article	Fryxell, John M.; Wilmshurst, John F.; Sinclair, Anthony R. E. 2004. Predictive models of movement by Serengeti grazers. Ecology. Vol: 85(9). Pages 2429-2435.
Journal Article	Fryxell, John M.; Wilmshurst, John F.; Sinclair, Anthony R. E.; Haydon, Daniel T.; Holt, Robert D.; Abrams, Peter A. 2005. Landscape scale, heterogeneity, and the viability of Serengeti grazers. Ecology Letters. Vol: 8(3). Pages 328-335.
Journal Article	Holdo, Ricardo M.; Holt, Robert D.; Fryxell, John M. 2009. Opposing rainfall and plant nutritional gradients best explain the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti. American Naturalist. Vol: 173(4). Pages 431-445. (Online version)
Journal Article	Packer, Craig; Hilborn, Ray; Mosser, Anna; Kissui, Bernard; Borner, Markus; Hopcraft, Grant; Wilmshurst, John F.; Mduma, Simon A. R.; Sinclair, Anthony R. E. 2005. Ecological change, group territoriality, and population dynamics in Serengeti lions. Science. Vol: 307. Pages 390-393.
Data Set	Packer, Craig; Mduma, Simon A. R.; Coughenour, Michael B.; Ritchie, Mark. 2006. Serengeti ecosystem. (Abstract) (Online version)