Understanding the importance of termite mounds and other nutrient hotspots for ungulates in the Issa Valley ecosystem

Nutrient hotspots enriched in soil and plant Nitrogen and Phosphorus,are areas attractive for grazing ungulates. These hotspots are often the immediate surroundings of termite mounds, tall trees or within grazing lawns in otherwise nutrient-poor savanna systems. Little is known about the process how these hotspots attract ungulates, their attractivity across seasons or whether they persist over a long time in the system through ungulate feeding activities. Our project aimed at understanding the importance of termite mounds and other nutrient hotspots for grazing ungulates in the IssaValley Ecosystem, Tanzania. We plan to compare plant species richness, abundance and diversity around termite mounds, large trees and grazing lawns and to assess ungulate grazing frequency accordingly. We further plan to experimentally disentangle factors that could lead to the attractiveness of these various nutrient hotspots. We also aim at understanding the wide-reaching nutrient redistribution through herbivores foraging on nutrient hotspots based on stable isotope analysis.  This study will help identifying ecological processes on and around nutrient hotspots. We will further show the factors responsible for the attractiveness of nutrient hotspots. Understanding their importance and persistence in the savanna ecosystem will help managers to deal with landscape heterogeneity and foster plant-herbivore interactions leading to these hotspots in the future.