This recently-awarded project is a collaboration between Tarleton State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Texas A&M AgriLife-Stephenville, and Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, located in Gaborone, Botswana. The collaboration aims to analyze social and environmental drivers and related ecosystem service impacts of changes in acacia-dominated woody cover within Texas and Botswana, especially in the context of variable climate.
Ecosystem services are benefits that people derive from biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Almost one-fifth of the world’s population lives in areas that are classified as savannas, many of them in rural societies that depend on livestock. Thorn-wood and brush savannas provide human inhabitants with a variety of important provisioning ecosystem services. However, increases in tree and shrub cover are occurring in these areas, affecting biodiversity and related ecosystem services. In that respect, Texas and Botswana are similar. We will collect and analyze ecological and social data in Texas and Botswana to determine drivers of woody cover change, impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and landowner perspectives and perceptions. Student involvement includes masters-level and undergraduate researchers, as well as interactions between Tarleton State and BUAN students during Southern Africa study abroad. This project addresses a need to increase resilience of thorn-wood savannas as socio-ecological systems through determining connections between woody plant cover, biodiversity, productivity, and economic and livelihood benefits. Current research is a culmination of several years of observation and research done during the Southern Africa study abroad program.