Savanna Plant and Community Ecology (SPACE)

Institutions: 
The University of Notre Dame (United States)

Principal Investigators: 
Tyler Coverdale, tcoverda@nd.edu

Project Manager: 
Buas Kimiti

Research in the Coverdale Lab aims to understand how plants respond to human impacts (e.g., climate change, herbivore extinction) across scales of biological organization from individuals to ecosystems. At Mpala Research Centre, members of the Coverdale Lab use a combination of long-term herbivore exclosure studies (e.g., UHURU, GLADE, KLEE), small-scale manipulative experiments, ecophysiology surveys, and high-resolution remote sensing to accomplish these goals. Recent publications emerging from this work include an assessment of the utility of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for quantifying herbaceous biomass (Coverdale et al. 2025, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation), an investigation of the relationship between plant diversity and structural complexity and its sensitivity to large herbivores (Coverdale et al. 2024, Ecological Monographs), and a study detailing the role of large herbivores in preventing harmful liana encroachment in savannas (Coverdale et al. 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science). Ongoing projects led by members of the Coverdale Lab include (i) an investigation of ecophysiological responses of dominant Acacia species to climatic and biotic stress (led by Dr. Emily Wedel), a long-term reciprocal transplant experiment to identify drivers of range limitation in common understory shrubs (led by Evan Foster), and experimental manipulation of herbivore cues to determine the effects of large herbivore rewilding on plant and microbial communities (led by Sophia Richter). 


Publications: 

Coverdale, TC, PB Boucher, J Singh, and AB Davies. A novel method for estimating herbaceous biomass in grassy ecosystems with UAV-borne LiDAR. In press. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation. 

Coverdale, TC, PB Boucher, J Singh, TM Palmer, JR Goheen, RM Pringle, and AB Davies. 2024. Herbivore regulation of savanna vegetation: structural complexity, diversity, and the complexity–diversity relationship. Ecological Monographs 94: e1624. 

Coverdale, TC, RD O'Connell, MC Hutchinson, A Savagian, TR Kartzinel, TM Palmer, JR Goheen, DJ Augustine, M Sankaran, CE Tarnita, and RM Pringle. Megaherbivores prevent harmful liana infestation in an African savanna. 2021. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118: e2101676118.

Coverdale, TC, IJ McGeary, RD O’Connell, TM Palmer, JR Goheen, M Sankaran, DJ Augustine, AT Ford, RM Pringle, and CE Tarnita. 2019. Strong but opposing effects of associational resistance and susceptibility on defense phenotype in an African savanna plant. Oikos 128:1772-1782.

Coverdale, TC, JR Goheen, TM Palmer, and RM Pringle. Good neighbors make good defenses: associational refuges reduce defense investment in African savanna plants. 2018. Ecology 99: 1724-1736.

Coverdale, TC, TR Kartzinel, K Grabowski, RK Shriver, AA Hassan, JR Goheen, TM Palmer and RM Pringle. Elephants in the understory: opposing direct and indirect effects of consumption and ecosystem engineering. 2016. Ecology 97: 3219-3230.