Integrating multi-scaled and multidisciplinary studies: A critical reflection on the Kruger National Park research supersites

Abstract

Over the years, the Kruger National Park (KNP) has established a reputation as an ‘outdoor laboratory’, and has registered more than 700 research projects between 2005 and 2016, and published 556 papers between 2003 and 2013, both by in-house scientists and external collaborators from around the world (Smit et al. 2017; Van Wilgen et al. 2016). As a result, the park has become one of the most studied savanna conservation areas in Africa (Smit et al. 2017). Many of these studies have focussed on specific experimental sites where underlying drivers are manipulated, for example, herbivore exclosures (e.g. Asner et al. 2009) or plots where fire regimes have been manipulated (e.g. Higgins et al. 2007). However, for many projects that aim to study or monitor patterns and processes emerging under non-manipulated conditions, sites were selected in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner and, as a consequence, because of underlying heterogeneity, it was often hard to integrate data sets and knowledge across these disparate sites. In an attempt to geographically focus research effort and allow data integration over time and across themes, the ‘KNP research supersites’ was conceptualised. It was envisaged that through establishing these areas, some geographic focussing of research would be achieved with these sites increasingly acting as data-rich, long-term sites for monitoring and research. In many respects, the KNP supersites have objectives similar to long-term ecological research sites (LTERS) (e.g. Gosz, Waide & Magnuson 2010; Mirtl et al. 2018). The four KNP research supersites that cover the rainfall gradient The Kruger National Park (KNP) research supersites were designed to encourage placebased research in order to geographically focus research activities on known and well described study sites as opposed to ad hoc site selection practiced previously. This was done by (i) delineating sites using a clear rationale, (ii) providing basic meta-data for these sites, and (iii) actively encouraging scientists to conduct research on these sites and share data freely. The underlying concept was that geographically focused research would facilitate data and knowledge exchanges and lead to long-term, multi-scaled and cross-disciplinary studies at these data-rich sites, facilitating an integrated and collectively developed understanding that would be hard to achieve otherwise.